Don't you remember me?
by greenstuff2
Summary: Molly and Charles meet by pure chance when she is in a spot of bother, they are complete strangers, they have never met before, or have they? Why does she look so familiar to him? and what is it she doesn't want to tell him?, and how are their lives going to change because of it?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: all rights to the characters belong to Tony Grounds and the BBC, the rest is mine.

Thi**s is a totally new departure for me, and I do hope you will enjoy it. Molly and Charles are complete strangers who have a chance meeting, they have never met before, or have they? Why does she look so familiar to him? and what doesn't she want to tell him? Their chance meeting sets up a whole chain of events that changes their lives forever. Please review and let me know what you think. **

"Where_ did you get these costumes then, Tarts R Us_?" Molly looked down at herself_ " You must be their best customer, nice and cheap were they?"_

"_You're never happier than when you're bleeding complaining about something, are you?" _Saul turned his angry gaze on her_ "And you had to have the shortest because you're the smallest! You should be bleeding grateful I employ you at all with your attitude"_

"_Oh I am, I am" _Molly pulled a face and mouthed the word 'tosser' at her partner in crime as they both turned back, fake smiles firmly in place, to look at their boss as he delivered his usual pre-match lecture.

"_Right, now listen, this is important…. shut up Molly… you smile nicely at everyone, especially the blokes who might turn into punters, you keep your mouths shut, we don't want to hear your opinions, especially not yours Molly, if anyone asks questions, you smile and get me, and you keep pushing the booze, pissed is good as far as punters are concerned, and you don't drink any of it yourselves, kapishe?"_

"_Oh absolutely, great leader"_

"_Cut the bleeding crap, Molly, honestly, wonder why I employ you, I really do"_

"_Cos I'm cheap?" _Molly wasn't going to let him have the last word, as she sauntered into the back room to check her hair and make-up, although she had no idea why she was bothering, with the skimpiness of the costumes they were wearing no-one would get as far as their faces, as she muttered the words "sleaze ball" to her friend Michelle who was her side-kick for the evening.

"_Sleaze Ball Saul? I thought he was Tosspot Tucker?"_

"_That was yesterday but both suit him really well, don't you think?_" They both started to giggle as Molly collected a tray of smallish fluted glasses filled with a virulent green coloured liquid. And sniffed it dubiously.

"_Jesus, what the fuck is this? Oh, I know what it is, it's that horror film stuff, what do they call it? I know, ectoplasm, we should taste it before we serve it, we don't want to get done for manslaughter"_

She sipped at the liquid_ "Yuck_" then made gagging noises_ " Tastes like ectoplasm as well"_

"_How do you know what ectoplasm tastes like?"_

_I just had some" _

The pair of them fell about laughing as Michelle again thanked the guardian angel of all promotion workers that she had pulled Molly as a partner tonight, everyone adored working with her, she was irreverent, disrespectful and huge fun to work with but she was also very good at choking off the more pissed and persistent suitors, both hers and other peoples, she took nothing and no-one seriously, least of all Saul Tucker who ran the outfit. Molly's mantra was that just because they had to dress like hookers, didn't mean that they were Christmas crackers, they weren't there to be pulled by anyone.

"_Are you going to drink that?" _she watched as Molly put the glass to her lips again.

"_Course I am, well no-one else will if they've got any sense, wonder what the hell it is?"_

"_Thought Saul said not to drink it"_

"_I'm not, I am conducting a taste test to save innocent members of the public drinking something toxic. Come on, we'd better take this stuff round and try and persuade anyone we don't like the look of to drink it"_

Tonight was slightly out of the ordinary in as much as they were hostessing at a promotional launch for Saul's new venture, whereas they normally worked for third party clients. He was looking for backers who were preferably loaded but without any prior experience of the night club business for an up market night club in central Bristol or as Molly described them, dumb dickheads with more money than sense who were prepared to lose shed loads of money on some sleazy ego trip for Saul.

Two hours had passed, as far as Molly and Michelle were concerned, that was two hours of smiling until their jaws hurt, and evading groping hands who thought that their minimal outfits were an invitation to touch, two hours of watching the clock, waiting for the time to pass until they could stop smiling and knock off. Molly had found that the ectoplasm didn't taste quite so toxic after the third glass and she doubted that there was much alcohol in it, because Saul was a cheapskate as well as a shyster, and wouldn't have paid for anything he didn't have to.

"_See that tall bloke over there at the back, the good looking one, do you know him?" _

Molly peered in the direction Michelle was pointing as she drank another glass of ectoplasm, the more she drank of it, the more it grew on her.

"_Nah, don't think so"_ Although to be fair, she couldn't really focus on anything much at all, she had begun to think that maybe the ectoplasm was toxic after all.

"_Well, he keeps staring at you as if he knows you"_

"_I'll go ansheeifhewants a photoinaminute_" Molly was aware that her speech was getting a bit slurred and she appeared to have taken her shoes off somewhere, but couldn't think where.

"_No you won't and how many of those bloody things have you had?"_ Michelle began to giggle.

"_Dunno, couplethree_" Molly made a huge effort _"Not many_"

"_You've had more than three, you're pissed! Look he's coming over, don't speak, just smile and I'll get rid of him"_

"_I camnamage, I'm a trainkiller" _

"_You're a what?_" Michelle was laughing _"No don't bother, just keep your mouth shut"_

The tall dark haired man came up to the pair, smiled and said "Hello", Michelle answered with a smile and a flutter of her eyelashes, he was seriously attractive, but Molly just smiled although she was not so drunk that she wasn't aware that it was more of a pissed leer than a polite smile, as he asked her if they had met before somewhere. She wanted to tell him that she had heard that line before and no, she hadn't hit him when she fell from heaven, but that sort of speech was way beyond her present capability, so she shook her head rather than risk speaking at all, then regretted it as her head was caught in the final spin cycle of a washing machine. She knew then that she was catastrophically pissed, at work, God knows what was in the ectoplasm and she might possibly have lost count of how many she had drunk, but there was no getting away from the fact that she was now completely hammered, Saul would fire her if he found out. Fresh air she told herself, that was the answer, so she walked away, completely unaware that the tall bloke was still speaking, as she wandered out past the smokers to sit on the low wall round the courtyard and then wondered where the hell her shoes had gone, she was sure she had had them on just now.

"_You okay?" _He had followed her, and appeared to be laughing at her.

She pinned her polite smile, or pissed leer, to her face and nodded her head very slightly, she didn't want to set the washing machine off again, as she wondered what the fuck he was finding so amusing. She wanted to ask him but then really didn't care enough about the answer to make the effort to speak, it was so much easier to nod or shake her head, if only it didn't keep setting the spin cycle off.

"_I think it might be a good idea if you went home", _he still seemed to be finding something very amusing, _"Have you got a coat? No, don't bother I'll ask your mate. Now, stay exactly where you are, don't move and I'll be back"_

She did as she was told for precisely thirty seconds and then got up and followed him back into the club, muttering to herself, Bossy fucker, who the fuck does he think he is? She would find her own shoes and bag and then go home and then she promptly forgot all about him and what she was looking for as she cannoned off the wall of the passage on her way in.

"_I thought I told you to wait outside? Come on, let's see if we can find a taxi driver potty enough to take you home, lets see if you can stand still long enough for me to try and persuade one to take you, shall we?"_

Molly would have liked to ask him where the hell he kept appearing from but she had now definitely lost the power of speech completely, so she let him take her by the hand and keep her walking in the direction of the taxi rank, it was easier than arguing.

"_Nah mate, can't take her, she's pissed. What happens if she chucks up in the back of my cab, or passes out or something? Or even worse accuses me of meddling with her, Nah, never take girls what are pissed and on their own, sorry"_

Now he had a real problem. He didn't know this girl, didn't even know her name, alright she had looked very, very familiar and that was why he had spoken to her in the first place, but she had said she didn't know him and she was totally pissed and out of it, but years of being required to be a gentleman coupled with years of being responsible for other people's safety meant that he couldn't just abandon her in the street even if he wasn't responsible for her, it would feel all wrong.

"_What about if I come with her?"_

"_Well, okay, but on your own head be it, mate. I think you're barking myself, It'll be you she's accusing of all sorts, you wait and see, I bet you I'm right. Where does she live anyway?"_

The two of them manhandled Molly into the back of the cab and then started asking her where she lived, but neither of them could understand a word she mumbled, despite their very best efforts to interpret her pissed slur and she got fed up with trying, so she gave up. The third time he tried to push her upright he realised that she had fallen deeply asleep and when he let her go she promptly toppled over and landed with her head in his lap, for all the world as if she had gone to bed. He gave up and gave the taxi driver his address in Clifton and then spent the whole of the short cab ride praying that she didn't throw up in his lap, it didn't look particularly likely, but he knew you could never tell!

The taxi driver helped him get her out of the cab , still shaking his head and sucking air in through his teeth, obviously convinced of the lunacy of this customer, who then put her over his shoulder and carried her up to his flat in a fireman's lift, thanking God she was so little and light. He was now equally unconvinced of the wisdom of his actions, but was unable to think of any alternatives. He dropped her on the spare bed and then panicked that she might be unconscious, so he roused her enough to get her to drink some water and left her there with a mug of water and a strategically placed bucket. Ten minutes later he had another panic and went back to turn her into the recovery position, during which she complained bitterly with an abundance of very bad language, then dropped off again. He left the light on just in case, just in case of what he didn't know, he was now very annoyed with himself for getting involved.

The promotion tonight hadn't been his type of thing at all, he was only there as a favour to one of his partners, who had been invited by Saul Tucker and who couldn't make it. After he left the army he had been rootless and unmotivated, for a while, it was almost as bad as doing the desk job he had been allocated after his last active service, until he had got involved with a couple of close friends in an investment company, where they acted as sort of venture capitalists for local businesses and so far the operation had been spectacularly successful, mainly because they stayed far, far away from the sort of business he had been checking out tonight. He had noticed the two girls shortly after he had arrived, it would have been hard not to, they were wearing very skimpy costumes and doing a great deal of chatting and giggling between themselves. At first glance he had thought they were maybe 'hostesses' of a very dubious nature, then realised that they were nothing of the kind, but what had kept him mesmerised by them was that he was sure that he knew the small, dark haired girl, who was not only exceptionally pretty but was currently sleeping it off in his spare room. She was very, very familiar but he couldn't place her. It had been driving him insane that he knew he had seen her before, had spent time in her company, but he didn't know when or where, it was like seeing an actress or actor on television and not being able to remember what play he had seen them in before.

He checked on his house guest before he went to bed and stood and looked at her for a second, willing his memory to co-operate and place her for him, but no, the knowledge of who this girl was and where he knew her from stayed just out of reach.


	2. Chapter 2

Oh shit where am I?" Molly tried hard to prise one eyelid open enough to check out the room she had woken up in. It looked respectable but totally unfamiliar, she was pretty sure she had never been here before, and judging by the jack hammer that was going off in her head and the cement mixer in her stomach, she wasn't asleep and dreaming, mores the pity. She would have loved to go back to sleep and avoid facing the extremes of last night for a few hours, or days, but her bladder was bursting and demanding that she get up and deal with it as a priority. Bathroom, where's the bathroom? She could see a small en-suite but it looked like a long walk that she wasn't entirely sure she was capable of. Sitting upright bought new tortures, her stomach and head were demanding that she lay down again immediately and the sunlight streaming through the open curtains made her eyes water, but wherever she was it was very civilised and whoever had looked after her last night was very civilised as well, the light had been left on, a bucket was next to the bed which she was relieved to see hadn't been necessary and there was a large glass of water which she glugged back until it was empty. She was incredibly dehydrated. As soon as she had finished it, she began to wonder if it had been a mistake, the water was threatening to make a rapid return visit.

She had to get up and use the loo and was glad that the water decided to stay put and had started to do the trick, her head was no longer spinning quite so violently, as she decided to try getting washed and getting out of there, the last one a matter of priority, she had no idea where she was or who had brought her here, where the fuck her bag was with her purse in, where her coat was with her phone and door keys in, basically she was fucked! A check in the mirror confirmed that she looked like herself but very much uglier, the corpse-like colour of her face confirmed that she had died in the night and the whites of her eyes were like AA road maps so she splashed her face with cold water and wished she had some makeup to hide some of the damage although pale and interesting might be a better option than raddled old trollop in the circumstances.

Time to be brave she told herself as she went in search of her saviour, flashbacks of last night had begun to give her some clues as to who she was looking for.

"Morning" he was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and looking unspeakably healthy, mind you, thought Molly sourly, he didn't drunk half a gallon of toxic waste last night, completely forgetting that her present condition was totally her own fault.

"Coffee or tea?" he waved a mug at her.

"No thanks" She declined on the basis that it probably wouldn't stay down, even the water was threatening to re-appear.

"Have something to eat and drink, it might make you feel better"

"It wouldn't, trust me"

"Okay" He was laughing at her again.

"I 'd just like to thank you for looking after me like that, it was very kind of you, I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me, I don't usually drink like that" her nerves were making her waffle and bend the truth slightly, "I hope I didn't do anything too awful"

"About a pint of vodka mixed with something green got into you and it depends what you call awful, I guess" he looked into her scarlet, horrified face and relented "No, you were fine, as drunks go, you were remarkably civilised"

"Vodka? I thought Sleaze Ball was too mean, I thought it might have been anti-freeze, anyway I should have given it a swerve, so look I'm sorry and I'll get out of your way"

"Well, just before you do, what's your name by the way?"

"Molly" he had known that a few seconds before she answered, and he was sure her mate hadn't told him her name, again there was this huge clang of a memory just out of reach.

She looked at his face properly for the first time and realised with a horrible clang that she knew him, of all the people in Bristol, he was probably the last person she would have wanted to be rescued by and have to be grateful to.

"Well, Molly, you might want to think about being more careful in the future, you know, you were steaming and you went off with me without a clue who I am, or what I might do, you could have been in all sorts of danger. Oh and your coat's over there" He got up and stood in front of her.

"Yeah, thanks" What the fuck does he want, blood? She'd said sorry and thank you, what more did he want? She felt indescribably grubby and small, not to mention stupid and the worst thing was that she knew he was right, but standing in front of someone who is nine foot tall and incredibly smug and heathy looking when you feel like a hung over midget who has slept in her clothes didn't feel exactly great.

Oh, thank you God, she found her keys and phone, I need to get out of here …. now! She collected her jacket and checked that her phone was still there, okay so he wasn't a thief, then checked her texts, three from Michelle, the first one said 'have a good time…but be careful', the second said 'Saul says he is proud of you' and the third said that she had rescued all Molly's belongings and taken them to hers.

"What the fuck did you tell them last night? About where we were going, only Sleaze Ball seems to have got the idea that I let you pull me for the good of his business, as if?"

"I didn't say anything like that, just that I was taking you for something to eat. I think you'll have to trust me on this, and if you hate him so much, why are you working for him? You seem like a nice girl , why don't you do something less, Oh I don't know, tacky?"

"You smug tosser …., you don't know anything about me. I work for him because the money's good, better than things that are less…'tacky'…" She put her fingers up to indicate inverted commas "and I'm saving to go to Uni in September, and just because I work for someone who is a sleazy slime ball doesn't make me one, okay? We sell lies for a living, we let blokes like you think that they're in with a chance of some sort of " she paused trying to think of the right word and couldn't "action, when hell would have to freeze over first, and if I've been rude, then I'm sorry. I'll get going now"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that you were … well…, what do you mean blokes like me? And what are going to study?"

"Medicine, and you were there, weren't you?" Now go and put that in your pipe and smoke it, arsehole. Molly enjoyed the look of shocked surprise on his face.

"Look, how are you going to get home, you've got no money and by the way, where is home?"

"Fishponds"

"Lovely, but that's a hell of a long walk and you haven't got any shoes on. Let me give you some money for a taxi or even a bus, £20 quid should do it" He was laughing at her again.

"Um, where are we?"

"Clifton." He laughed even louder as Molly gulped, bloody hell that was miles away, and then decided that she couldn't afford pride.

"Thanks but it's a loan, okay? I don't take money from blokes, and just to show how grateful I am for the rescue, here's a bit of advice for you, whatever you do don't give Sleaze Ball any money, okay? And what's your name by the way?"

"James"

"Well, thanks again James, Bye"

She couldn't get out of there fast enough and was half way down the stairs when she remembered his Christian name, it's Charles, it's Captain Charles James and I remember you very well, I remember everything about that day, how could I ever forget? And this money is definitely a loan, I wouldn't take anything from you.

He was left with a bemused smile on his face as he went and cleared the debris from the spare room, not that there was that much, she didn't seem to have got in the bed, just slept on top. He was annoyed with himself that he had enjoyed their encounter a lot, but hadn't thought to get her surname or her address and therefore he was left with no way of contacting her again, which he suddenly wanted to do, even last night's promo hadn't been held at the offices of the company she worked for, it was just a hired venue and he was sure that he had thrown the business card with the company name on it in the bin.

It was late afternoon when he found the envelope leaning up against his door, it just had _**James **_written on it and when he opened it there was £20 and a short note inside. The note read

_**Thanks again for rescuing me, here's your money back, I don't take money from blokes, specially tossers.**_

_**M.**_

He laughed out loud when he read it, it was exactly as if she had spoken the words, her cockney accent and blunt speech had jumped off the page. He put the money back in the envelope and started to run his fingers through the hair on the back of his head as, with a broad grin on his face, he started to compose his reply and began to work out how he could find her.

So what was he like then?"

"I keep telling you, I didn't, I mean, we didn't, actually he was a perfect gent, just looked after this pissed stranger and then loaned her £20 to get home, I mean you don't get many of those to the pound, do you?" Molly badly wished she could change the subject from Captain Charles James before Michelle got suspicious and started asking questions she didn't want to answer.

You mean, he didn't try anything? Nothing at all? " Michelle looked incredulous "How bleeding disappointing, I don't know how you managed to keep your hands off him, I wouldn't have"

"Sometimes I worry about you! And you know, I just don't, full stop. And if he'd decided to interfere with me while I was out of it, he was very considerate, he put me knickers back on for me" They both shrieked with laughter.

"Uh oh, stalker alert! Guess who just came in with Saul? Blimey, he's even better looking than I remembered! Saul looks like he's going to come in a minute, thinks you helped him bag a live one, you'll probably get a bonus. It's really not fair, if I got a stalker he'd look like Quasimodo's ugly brother, look what you get?"

"Don't be so crude and he's not my stalker, where is he?" Molly giggled even though she was faintly horrified.

"Saul's office, and when did you become Mary Poppins? I wonder what he wants?"

"His bleeding head tested if he's going into business with Saul, he didn't look insane" Molly first thought was God forbid, then "Listen, I'm out of here, text me when he's gone, okay?"


	3. Chapter 3

It hadn't taken him that long to trace Saul Tucker Promotions, a quick trawl on-line and a couple of phone calls and here he was chatting to a bloke he kept wanting to call Sleaze Ball and watching Molly out of the corner of his eye. He felt slightly guilty as he tried to pay attention to what the gushing Saul Tucker was telling him, he had absolutely no intention of investing in this, and he looked round him, tacky operation. He was here for one reason and one reason only, to return an envelope and to get a reaction. He saw Molly disappear out of the door so he was now free to talk to her mate, which was what he had intended to do all along. He cut Tucker short, abruptly saying he would talk to the staff, of which there was one left in the room, and would do it alone before making any sort of decision, he hastily made an addition to his note, then went to speak to Michelle.

"Hello, do you remember me? from the other night?"

"Yeah, course I do"

"Could you give this note to your mate for me, please? You know, the girl from the other night, the one who was here just now"

"Yeah, course I can, but her name's Molly"

"I know, it's a bit of a joke, okay"

Molly opened the envelope marked _**Holly**_ and tried not to smirk. The £20 was still inside as was her original note, which had been amended with beautiful hand writing,

_**Thanks again for rescuing me, here's your money back, I told you I don't take money from blokes, specially tossers**_

_**M**_

_**I'm not and it wasn't a loan, call it a consultancy fee for the advice on Mr Sleaze Ball, and I'd be glad to rescue you any day.**_

_**Glad to see you are feeling better today**_

_**J**_

In spite of her resolution to have nothing further to do with Captain Smartarse James, Molly started laughing as she composed her reply, which she would have to traipse all the way to Clifton to deliver, she knew where he lived but not the address. She had to admit to herself that she was having fun, not something that featured very frequently in her self-imposed ban on men being part of her life.

_**Thanks again for rescuing me, here's your money back, I told you I don't take money from blokes, specially tossers**_

_**M**_

_**I'm not and it wasn't a loan, call it a consultancy fee for the advice on Mr Sleaze Ball, and I'd be glad to rescue you any day.**_

_**Glad to see you are feeling better today**_

J

_**My name is MOLLY and I'm sorry, I thought you were a bloke, you look like one and you didn't take my advice so you don't have to pay.**_

_**Course I'm better, I've given up drinking anti-freeze**_

_**M**_

He kept looking for a reply and was disappointed when two days went by without any sign of one, then found himself with a big grin on his face when the somewhat grubby envelope re-appeared propped against his door as he wondered whether it was possible to word a reply that included inviting her out for a drink, or perhaps not a drink, maybe a pizza or something. He still hadn't rid himself of the conviction that they had met before, but he knew he wanted to meet her again so he crossed out _**Holly**_ on the envelope and wrote _**Polly**_ then composed his answer.

_**I am a bloke, you cheeky mare, just not a tosser. I did take your advice and have broken Sleaze Ball's heart so you've earned your fee.**_

_**I would ask you out for a drink but I don't know where they serve anti-freeze round here.**_

_**I need your address or phone number, I don't think Saul will pass on messages for me**_

_**J x**_

Molly knew he would reply, she just wasn't sure how he would get the reply to her, he couldn't just turn up in Saul's office again, he was no longer welcome, in fact he was a dirty word as far as Saul was concerned and Molly had come in for a lot of flack, even though it was nothing to do with her, at least as far as anyone at work was concerned. Michelle found his reply slipped under the front door when she opened up. Molly wasn't in the office that day, she was working a stand in the shopping mall, and Michelle was tempted to open it to see what they were writing to each other about, Molly had been totally silent on the subject so Michelle was intrigued. She didn't, she liked Molly and thought that her self-imposed celibacy was a shame for such a pretty girl and he seemed like a nice bloke, bit too good looking for his own good, but then no-one's perfect.

Molly had to do a lot of soul searching when she read his reply. Did she want to go out for a drink with him? She wasn't sure, it would be easier if he so obviously hadn't forgotten that their paths had crossed before, but there was no way on earth she was going to tell him, and she wasn't sure how you can get to like someone because they send you notes, even if they add a kiss at the bottom, but she was tempted, she'd been on her own a long time and he was very attractive.

_**Okay joke's over, you know my name is MOLLY **_

_**I know, Sleaze Ball is a broken man, but he doesn't have a heart, and we are not allowed to mention your name.**_

_**I've given up drinking for Lent, you meet such strange people when you drink anti-freeze, and some of them are tossers.**_

_**Please use the £20 to buy a drink for yourself , I wouldn't know what to buy I only drink freebies.**_

_**You can't have my address, getting a message to me is your challenge for today**_

_**Love M x **_

She made him wait two days again for her reply and the envelope was addressed to _**Jimmy**_ so that he wondered whether she was deliberately torturing him by making him wait, then realised that he was being ridiculous, she would have no way of knowing how much he suddenly wanted to spend time with her and probably wouldn't care if she did know. Why on earth would it matter to her? Then he opened the note and saw the way she had signed it, and spent the rest of the evening with an inane grin on his face as he composed his reply. Okay, it was a prize pain that he didn't have an address for her and he had no idea how he was going to get in touch, so it was obviously time for some lateral thinking and some military planning, but nothing could get in the way of the happy feeling the sight of that scruffy envelope had created.

He had managed to find out where Saul Tucker Promotions were working the next night by trawling hours of internet "forthcoming events" notices and had gate crashed the event, only to find that Molly wasn't one of the hostesses, which had led to a surge of bitter disappointment, way out of proportion to the actual let down. He asked one of the girls if she knew her and to his relief she nodded, saying that everyone knew her and that she'd be happy to take her a note, he was glad that he had put it in a fresh envelope addressed to Molly so that she wouldn't get confused as to who it was meant for. Charles wasn't convinced that she wasn't a flake, but had to be content with the arrangement and hope that she was as good as her word and wouldn't forget altogether, he had no other options that he could see.

_**Dear Molly,**_

_**As you can see I had to invest in a new sheet of paper, the old one was almost full, no expense spared when I am on a mission. I am not God squad but even I know it's nowhere near Lent, Lent is at Easter and it's Summer now, or it's supposed to be, so as you don't trust yourself to go out for a drink with me, how about we share a pizza?**_

_**Put the £20 in the Medicine fund**_

_**Love Charles J xx**_

The note was almost a week old when she got it, a week when she had been kicking herself for being a smartarse and not giving him her address. She had almost given up on him and was trying to decide whether to write him another note even though it wasn't her turn and she was torturing herself with visions of him losing interest, when Susie had remembered that a 'bloody good looking bloke gave me this for you last week', and that she was sorry she'd forgotten. Molly didn't know whether she wanted to hug her or hit her.

_**Dear Molly,**_

_**As you can see I had to invest in a new sheet of paper, the old one was almost full, no expense spared when I am on a mission. I am not God squad but even I know it's nowhere near Lent, Lent is at Easter and it's Summer now, or it's supposed to be, so as you don't trust yourself to go out for a drink with me, how about we share a pizza?**_

_**Put the £20 in the Medicine fund**_

_**Love Charles J xx**_

_**Dear J **_

_**Who the hell is this Charlie bloke, do I know him?**_

_**It isn't that I don't trust myself with you it's that I don't trust you with me, I know what you're like for getting girls into your spare room!**_

_**Where did you have in mind for eating pizza, I'll get the sack if I'm seen with you, I have been warned! Nice paper by the way, looks expensive.**_

_**My address is in the phone book, I am the only Dawes in Fishponds.**_

_**Love Mols xx! **_

Dawes, her name's Molly Dawes, and bells were going off all over his memory, he knew that name, he knew he knew her, but where the fuck from and how did he know her and why didn't she seem to know him?

He didn't know whether to phone her and risk being blown out of the water or carry on writing, which he was enjoying enormously, to see whether he could get her to make a date with him, so he opted for one more try, he wanted to spend time with her more than he had wanted anything since he had left the army and the fact that she was slightly out of reach was adding to the fun of the challenge. He was sure now that at some point he would remember how and why he knew her, it was just a matter of time,


	4. Chapter 4

_**Dear Molly,**_

_**Of course you know Charlie, that's me, James is my surname. I'm usually called Charles, but you can call me anything you like, except for tosser if you don't mind!**_

_**I know you work most evenings peddling lies, your words not mine, so how about we meet for lunch at a very exclusive venue in Clifton, you may remember it, you visited once and no-one will see you so you won't lose your job, a mixed blessing in my opinion. I promise I won't try and get you into my spare room!**_

_**And you were safe last time you visited!**_

_**It doesn't have to be pizza, it can be anything you like, as long as you don't expect me to cook it.**_

_**There are lots of take-away round here, everything you can think of and no, I'm not a cheapskate, money is no object, the same goes for the paper I buy, only the best is good enough for me.**_

_**Please let me know soon and please say yes**_

_**Love Charlie xx**_

Her answer, when it came, was short and to the point and made his heart sing and it didn't follow their usual pattern at all.

_**Dear Muppet, Well you said I could call you anything I like! What day and time? Shall I bring the £20 to help pay for the take-away? Phone me, I'm in the book, Love Mols xx**_

He was filled with the sort of nervous anticipation that he hadn't had since the early days with Rebecca so that he kept pacing around the room and checking his watch, re-checking the take-away menus were current and that he had got the full range, then sitting down and getting up again, a real bag of nerves. She turned up bang on time, which was a blessing for his nerves, he wasn't sure he could have handled it if she'd been late, and he was filled with a moment of real doubt, he didn't know this girl, had only spent less than half an hour in her company, at least her conscious company, then exchanged a few silly, flirty notes, what on earth were they going to talk about? What could they possibly have in common? Then she smiled at him and said "Hello Muppet" and he laughed, then felt on top of the world, this was going to be fun!

She turned down his offer of a glass of wine saying that her preferred tipple was anti-freeze and as he hadn't managed to find any, she would stick with water, anything else might have a dire effect on her, and then she checked the pizza menu. When he pointed out that she'd said she didn't like pizza, she pointed out that she hadn't said anything of the kind and anyway she lied a lot, she was a professional, she did it for a living. She looked around and said "Nice gaffe this" and he asked her whether she really thought that or was she being a professional liar again and then realised that he hadn't stopped laughing since she'd arrived, he'd almost forgotten how to enjoy himself like this. One small niggling worry had raised it's ugly head as he watched her sip her water, how old was this girl exactly? She was very pretty, beautiful in fact, and looked a hell of a lot healthier than the last time she had been in his flat and last time she had been dressed in a very minimal sleazy looking costume which showed off more of her than it covered and she had slept in it and although he had caught a glimpse of her in the office he hadn't noticed what she was wearing. Today she was wearing jeans and a plain white polo shirt and she looked totally different, but she also looked very young! He decided to ask her outright.

"How old are you Molly?"

"How old do I look?" Thanks, that's helpful he thought.

"I don't know, about twelve?"

"Oh good, I'm having lunch with a paedophile, which means I'm far too old for you, I'm 23, how old are you then? No, don't tell me 50 but wearing well"

Could be worse he thought, if not much! Then stopped himself, don't be ridiculous, you're having lunch not getting married!

"I'm not 50, I'm 32 but I look older"

"Don't fish for compliments"

Lunch was a riotous affair with Molly regaling him with hilarious stories of some of the gigs she had done for Saul, some of the outrageous behaviour of the punters, as she called them, and of the petty revenges they had taken on the worst offenders. He wasn't sure how strictly truthful some of her stories were but she was a wonderful story teller, had him in absolute stitches so that his ribs ached from laughing. She had encouraged him to talk about himself, so he had talked about Rebecca and then Sam and at length about the army and how much he missed it and his parents in Bath. She didn't talk about her past at all, changed the subject when he asked about pre-Saul, just talked about her family in east London and how much she missed them, how she couldn't get to see them as much as she would like to, and the time sped by and suddenly she was checking her watch. He badly wanted her to stay.

"I'm gonna have to go in a minute, I'm working tonight."

"Where are you working?"

"Not sure but I know it's belly dancing costumes!" She pulled a face and ran a finger across her throat as if she was slitting it, and he wanted to scream 'no', he really didn't want her to do it.

"Thanks for lunch, Muppet, it's been fun"

"Can we do it again? Soon?"

"Yeah, course we can. When did you have in mind?" He suddenly realised that she didn't want to go any more than he wanted her to.

"Are you peddling lies tomorrow night?" she shook her head "Shall we go out and get something to eat or go for a drink or something?" In his head he was begging her, say yes, please say yes, then felt his face break into the widest grin when she nodded her head. He badly wanted to kiss her.

"I'll call you later, but please be careful tonight, stay away from the anti-freeze" She saw the insecurity in his face coupled with the concern he couldn't quite conceal, so she smiled and put her hand on his arm, then whispered

"I will, don't worry"

He went down and waited with her at the bus stop. She refused to get a taxi, said that they were only for posh twats like him and that ordinary mortals were quite happy with the bus, which arrived far too quickly for his liking. He stood and waved as they carried on looking at each other until the bus took her out of his sight, totally unaware of the intense look of longing that was written all over his face. As he walked back to the flat, he wondered how soon he could call her.

Molly had the dream again that night, something that hadn't troubled her for months so that she woke up in a cold sweat and had to put all the lights on and check that the door was locked and make sure that she was fully awake, not about to drop back to sleep and carry on dreaming. For a while she had self-medicated with drinking too much, but those days were over, the ectoplasm had been a very rare occurrence, alcohol didn't solve problems, they were still there when you sobered up and you had a hangover to deal with as well. She knew that if she was going to carry on seeing him she was going to have to remind him about what had happened and watch the horror and disapproval flood his face. The easiest thing would be to avoid him from now on, just to have nothing more to do with him, but she didn't want to stop seeing him, she liked him and it was obvious that he liked her and she began to wonder if some of her judgements back then had been flawed.

She was few minutes late arriving so that she was almost running across the grass when she arrived at the entrance to the suspension bridge and she was out of breath as she tried to say "Sorry, sorry". He just smiled at her and bent down and kissed her "Hello", quite gently as he struggled to control the impulse to really kiss her, and waited for her to slap his face or something, instead she stood on tip toes and kissed him back, again quite gently, and said "Hello Muppet". They stood and gazed at each other, both waiting for the other to speak then both started laughing at the same time, for no particular reason, just the fact that the evening sun was shining, it was warm and they were both filled with happy anticipation of the evening ahead. They ate in a very mediocre Italian restaurant, Clifton was full of them, and both agreed to eat the garlic bread, knowing the significance of that joint decision and spent more time reading the expressions in each other's eyes than listening to what they were actually saying. They walked hand in hand back to his flat, without even discussing it, there was an unwritten, unspoken agreement that they were going to go home together and they started kissing as soon as they had gone through the front door, gently at first then more and more deeply with an inevitable result as far as he was concerned. He tried hard to angle himself away from her, he wasn't too sure that it was a good idea to demonstrate the extent to which he was aroused by her closeness, he was worried it would frighten her off.

"Are you going to stay?"

"What for, the rest of the evening?, the night?, for ever?" she laughed at him.

"All three?" he tried to sound as though he was joking, this was all going far too quickly and he didn't want to scare her off.

"Bit previous aren't you?"

"Well, it's chemistry" he smiled at her.

They kept on kissing until their breathing was ragged and they were holding each other so closely that it was hard to see where one ended and other began, and it was obvious where this was heading. Charles broke away from her with difficulty and whispered

"Are you sure about this? because if you want to change your mind, now would be a good time to tell me, otherwise I have to tell you that this could get way beyond kissing"

"I don't want to change my mind"

He scooped her up and carried her into his bedroom while he carried on kissing her, then they started undoing each other's buttons and stripping each other's clothes off, and their kisses were getting deeper and more passionate and their caresses getting more and more intimate until he was fumbling in the drawer of his bedside table trying to find a condom and he realised that she had frozen. Her face was a mask of total fear and her eyes were squeezed shut as tears seeped from under her lashes and she was shaking as she started to scramble away from him.

"Molly, what the hell's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, please don't touch me, I can't do this, I thought I could, but I can't"

"I'm sorry, I thought you wanted this, I didn't mean to …. " His voice tailed away as she cut across his reply.

"So did I, but I don't. I'm sorry" She was desperately trying to do up her bra with hands that were shaking like a leaf, so she abandoned it and put the rest of her clothes on, not worrying that her shirt was inside out.

"Where are you going? You can't just walk out at this time of night, the buses have stopped and you'll never get a taxi, so stay, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, just stay in the spare room if you like, but stay tonight, please. Go home in the morning when it's safe"

"You still don't remember me, do you?"

"Tell me, please. I know I've met you before, and I know I've asked you before, but I just can't quite remember, but you obviously do, so tell me"

"Cyprus"

With that one word he had total recall and a feeling of horror washed over him, how the hell could he have forgotten?

**Authors Notes: As you can see I have a lot of this ready to upload, would have started yesterday but the blessed web site was down, how frustrating was that? Glad you are enjoying it, gets a bit angsty in the next chapter, you have been warned. Please review for me. **


	5. Chapter 5

Oh shit, Cyprus!

Wonderful how one word could bring about total recall when he had now spent hours in her company and had struggled and failed to find any recollection of where their paths had crossed before, then bang!

The first time he had seen her had been three years ago, his last tour of Afghan, and she had been outside the mess tent at Bastion, standing in a patch of sunlight, well it was always sunny there, the sunlight reflecting off her brown hair as she had been chatting and laughing with a group of squaddies, one of whom was Smurf, the self-appointed 'ladies man' of 2 section, but he couldn't remember who the others were, he was not even sure he ever knew them. He knew from her flashes that she was a medic but she wasn't one of his, she was obviously with another platoon, so he had never seen her before. He had been standing there chatting with his young, good looking and very green behind the ears, second lieutenant Toby Webster, known as Tobes, who was another so-called 'ladies man' with a reputation to rival Smurf's, and who certainly seemed to be popular with the girls on the base. It was Tobes who had drawn his attention to her, moaning that it wasn't fair, why hadn't they got lucky and had her as their medic? Toby had stated his intention of joining the little party outside the tent and had wandered off with casual intent so that Charles had smiled and shaken his head ruefully, then walked away. He remembered wondering if he should tell Tobes the facts of army life again, as opposed to the facts of life, which he seemed to know very well. Then he had forgotten all about it.

The second time he had seen her had been during decompression at the army base at Dhekelia, a beach barbecue for the masses, with horrible food, too much boozing and music that was far too loud to allow decent conversations. He was standing with a large group of mixed ranks including Toby Webster and Smurf, most of whom were very much the worse for wear, not having had any alcohol for months, when someone, he didn't know who now, had bought her over and introduced her to them, giving her full name and then calling her Dawesy. She had been drinking beer, he remembered that as it was crucial in what happened later that night, and Tobes had immediately gone over to where she was standing and annexed her attention. He remembered being drawn into looking at her and keeping on looking at her, and thinking what a beautiful looking girl she was, even in army fatigues, tiny and slim with a waterfall of brown hair which was escaping from her plait and curling in the heat, and huge eyes that were almost green. Tobes had been very persistent in putting his arm round her shoulders as he spoke to her, which she was equally persistent in shrugging off , while still laughing at whatever he was saying to her. He had watched as she left, Toby hard on her heels. She turned and said something to him, he couldn't hear what, the music was too loud and then another officer joined them, he didn't recognise him, and they all three had walked away.

The third time he had seen her had been much later on that night when he was called in to see the Provost to give his evidence of what he had seen and noticed earlier that evening and to generally assist as Toby Webster's CO. He remembered thinking what a stupid arse Webster was, getting himself into so much bother for the sake of a leg over with a drunken Doris, no matter how good looking that Doris was and what a fucking nuisance it all was. She had been sitting in the waiting area with a female Redcap, and she was chalk-white and their eyes had met as he walked into the area, and whatever she said to the Redcap, it was obviously very anti-male and anti-officer, because he got a right royal glare of disapproval from the Redcap, but he couldn't be bothered to pull rank, just wanted to get it sorted and get to bed. Apparently, according to the Provost she was claiming that Webster had raped her while another officer had held her down, but she couldn't provide a name or any other details of A.N. Other, i.e., couldn't prove he existed so they were discounting her story. According to the M.O., there were some local injuries so they were forced to investigate, but the Provost made it sound as though it was almost a formality, just some silly little tart who had got drunk and got more than she bargained for. Webster was claiming that she had been drinking, well they both had and she had gone with him willingly and consented to sex, that the sex had been maybe a little rougher than she had expected and she had had a change of heart and cried rape afterwards. He had asked that his Captain be called to give evidence that she had been drinking and had left with him willingly. Charles had provided that evidence, he had no reason to doubt Webster and it matched what he'd seen, he'd then vowed to give the silly bugger hell in the morning. Webster had been released without charge, he had given him the bollocking he deserved and had thought no more of it….until now.

"He hurt me you know" her voice was soft "Oh, not my feelings, I was numb, but he actually hurt me, I was all bruised and bleeding, but you know what the worst thing was? that no-one believed me, well except for the Redcap who found me, but she was just another woman, so she didn't count. They all believed him, including you. I was just some dumb little tart who had jumped into bed with the officer and then changed her mind, not really worth worrying about"

"I'm sorry" He didn't know what to say to her, he felt totally inadequate.

"You was wrong, you know, I wasn't drunk, I had one of those low alcohol beers, that's it. Oh, I know you're thinking about my anti-freeze night, and thinking I make a habit of it, but it wasn't like that at all, I had a bad throat so I was on antibiotics and I was a medic so I know not to drink with them. Him and his mate followed me and he kept hassling me all evening, I told them to piss off, but they ignored me, Privates aren't allowed to tell Officers to do one."

"You don't have to tell me all this"

"What you really mean is that you don't want to hear any of this" She gave a hollow laugh, she was right, he didn't, but he knew instinctively that she was telling the truth and he had been as guilty as the others of dismissing her as a pain in the arse who was trying to ruin a young officer's career and nothing more, a Doris who had changed her mind and cried rape.

"His mate held me down, and you know what? I couldn't even prove he existed and you saw him follow me with Webster and you didn't say did you?" he shook his head " No, thought not, and you didn't say you never saw me drunk or that I was trying to get him to leave me alone all evening, and you saw cos I saw you looking, I couldn't fight, they were both much bigger than me. He was very considerate, even used a condom, although that was probably because he thought he might catch something, rather than anything else. When he was finished, he just pissed off, laughing with his mate , and left me on the beach, he called me names and told me not to bother reporting it, no-one would take my word over his, he was the officer, and he was right weren't he? I just stayed where I was until the Redcap on drunk patrol found me and took me to the hospital. So now you know"

"God, Molly, I don't know what to say, I can't tell you how sorry I am, I wish I'd asked a few more questions or something, or told them that you didn't look drunk or that there had been another bloke with Webster, or something, I just don't know what to say to you"

"There's nothing you can say, you can't go back and fix it. Tonight was the first time I've kissed anyone since then, let alone done anything else, I thought I could do it, that I was over it and that I could, what do they call it, move on, looks like I was wrong there, doesn't it?"

"What about Smurf?"

He remembered now seeing her at Smurf's funeral. She had been completely alone in one of the back pews of the church, tears pouring down her cheeks and he remembered hearing someone say that Smurf had been with a girlfriend in east London when he just dropped dead, so he had assumed it was her, but then she had disappeared, hadn't been outside the church or anywhere to be seen. He remembered looking.

"He was one of the very few people who believed me and he kept on coming to see me when we all got home. You're not alone, you know, I couldn't be what he wanted me to be either, then he died, and he'd been very kind to me so I went to his funeral. No-one spoke to me there either" She gave a wry smile.

"When did you recognise me?"

"That first day, after you rescued me"

"I'm surprised you went out with me"

"Why? It wasn't your fault was it? You didn't hold me down, did you? I like you. Look, at first I blamed you, all of you, but there was really only ever one person to blame, wasn't there? Well two actually, but one was the disappearing man so I was left with just Toby Webster and that's not you, and I'm really sorry about tonight"

"No, I'm not Webster, thank God! If I knew where he was I would be tempted to go and shoot him"

"Nice, no-one's ever offered to serve a life sentence for me before" She tried her best to laugh.

"Does this mean that I can carry on seeing you, then? No funny business, I promise" He put his hands up, palms facing her.

"Well, as long as you're not waiting for me to have a sudden change of heart so you can pounce" He shook his head, knowing he was lying, "But can you please go and put some clothes on, it's a bit difficult to take you seriously when you're only wearing boxers"

"Oh, shit"

The weeks that followed were some of the strangest he had ever known. He had been in the army for 11 years, so he was used to waiting out for things and was used to long periods of celibacy, but not when the girl he fancied so much was there and spending time with him 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes more, and they were becoming really close friends, laughing and teasing each other, even holding hands and kissing each other 'hello' and 'goodbye' on the cheek, but absolutely nothing else. Every other form of physical intimacy was strictly out of bounds and it was driving him mad. He was boring everyone rigid about her, his partners at work had started sticking their fingers in their ears and singing "LaLaLa" very loudly when he started talking about her, so that he was forced to point out how fucking childish they were being, so that they, in turn, told him what a sad fuck he was and how they were totally pissed off with hearing her name. One of them had said he was considering taking her as his specialist subject on Mastermind, because he knew so much about her now. He couldn't stop thinking about her and worrying about her, it was a blessing that he had years of military discipline to fall back on when he had to concentrate on his role in the company, otherwise he would have been a disaster there as well. He knew it was frustration, he wanted to sleep with her very badly indeed and he couldn't, he wasn't allowed to and he had made her a promise of no touching! He hated her job, thought she was in real danger, even though she kept assuring him that there was a "look with your eyes, not with your hands" policy and that she could handle it, she had laughed and said that she was a 'trained killer' just like him and could handle any nonsense as well as he could. But he couldn't help reminding himself that she hadn't been able to handle Webster and he was horribly afraid of all the other Websters out there.

They hadn't really talked about what had happened since the night things had come to a head, except for one day when he was, as usual, moaning about her job and she pointed out, for the umpteenth time that she needed the money for Uni, and he had asked her why she hadn't stayed in the RAMC, because they would have funded her. She had laughed and then told him what had happened after that night, explained that she had a label round her neck from then on.

"I was the slapper who tried to cause problems for that nice Toby Webster, got pissed, jumped him and then cried rape. I'm sure that some of them didn't really believe it, they knew me for fuck's sake, but a hell of a lot of them did, well you did for starters" He couldn't help cringing "but especially the girls who fancied him, and there were plenty of those! I got sent home pretty damn quick and if I thought it was bad in Cyprus, that was nothing compared to what went down at home. People kept staring at me, stopping talking when I went in rooms, sniggered when I spoke, and made snidey comments and these were people what didn't know me, or him! I was seeing the shrink for PTSD from Afghan and now for this as well, so when he recommended that I got a medical discharge, they jumped at it and, to be fair, so did I. So, there I was completely fragged, and with me career down the shitter, so the job with Saul was a lifeline, he didn't ask too many questions and I make the rules as far as blokes are concerned and Saul's quite fond of me in his own weird little way"

It was at this point that Charles decided that shooting alone was far too quick a way for Webster to die, torture by pulling out his finger nails and toe nails with pliers and probably his teeth as well, without anaesthetic, then leaving him to bleed to death sounded more attractive by the minute. He couldn't remember ever being so angry with anyone. But he was angry with himself as well and that was just as hard to deal with.

**Authors notes: Thank you for all your lovely reviews. I did warn you that this chapter was bit angsty, but stick with me as he tries to make things better. **


	6. Chapter 6

"Does she know you are in love with her? Have you told her?" Charles' mum was sick of hearing him drone on about Molly and her job.

"I'm not in love with her. She's far too young for me, I just hate that bloody awful job she does, even if she does need the money. I think she should give it up and let me look after her" He hadn't known he was going to say that, it wasn't planned, "I've told you what happened to her, Mum, and I feel like it was my fault in some way. The hardest thing is that I can't hug her to comfort her when she gets upset, if I did she was just freeze, I know she would". He knew he was justifying himself and he meant what he said about feeling responsible, but he didn't know how he felt about her, he didn't know whether he was in love with her, he didn't think so. He knew that he thought about her constantly, missed her when she wasn't around and worried about her when she was working_, _but he knew he couldn't live forever in a chaste relationship, and that surely that would be enough if you really loved someone. But it wasn't enough for him, in fact, he didn't think he could live with the way things were for much longer but the alternatives looked even bleaker, he definitely didn't want anyone else and the thought of being without her completely didn't bear thinking about.

"Course you're not, dear" His mother had patted his arm and adopted the sceptical tone of voice that had always driven him nuts when he was young, and it wasn't far off doing it now "Age doesn't matter a damn, you know, or is it that you will be happier being in a relationship with a needy medical student rather than a needy someone who does tacky promotions for a living?"

"For fuck's sake, Mum, I'm 32, I should know how I feel and I'm not a snob, I don't care what she does" he snapped "It's just that I think that job is dangerous"

"No, dear, of course you're not a snob, and please don't swear at me" he knew there was no point in continuing this conversation, his mother still thought he was 12, and treated him as if he were. Discounting what she said was far easier than looking too closely at his relationship with Molly and deciding what the hell he was going to do about it.

Molly was as unsure as he was, she was spending huge amounts of time with him and was loving every minute. They laughed and teased, shared a very similar sense of humour and could talk for hours about anything and everything, except where their relationship, if that was what it was, was heading. He was incredibly caring and protective, so that she felt completely safe with him, a novel sensation for her since Cyprus. She also knew that she wasn't being very fair because, despite all his promises, she knew that he wanted more from her than he was getting at the moment and it made her feel under pressure, not from him, she knew he would never force the pace, but from herself and that to be fair to him she should end the friendship now. She didn't know how she felt about him, there were times when she fancied him so much that she almost kissed him the way he wanted to be kissed and she had tried to imagine making love to him, but felt herself go tense at the thought and was terrified that, if she did it, it would be a re-run of the last time they had got into bed together. She didn't want to do that to him again, or to herself for that matter.

It was a small thing that brought things to a head. Charles felt as though he was treading on eggshells because she was in a foul mood, ready to pick a fight about anything, a bit like a cat whose fur has been stroked the wrong way, wanting to hiss and spit at anyone and everyone. They were discussing plans for the weekend before setting off for a barbecue at Saul's house. The coming weekend was Charlie's weekend to have Sam and he wanted Sam and Molly to meet, something that hadn't happened before, then for all three of them to go to Bristol Zoo and onto Charles' mum in Bath for tea, and Molly had refused point blank, saying that she wasn't going, she didn't want to go, that she couldn't see the point and then refused to discuss it any further. Charles wasn't sure whether she meant that she couldn't see the point of ever meeting Sam and his mother, or whether he should leave it until she was in a better frame of mind, he had no clue what was wrong with her, but something obviously was. For the first time he admitted to himself that she could be seriously hard work .

He wasn't actually invited to Saul's barbecue, which was being held to celebrate getting funding for his nightclub venture, he was probably completely unwelcome, but he was going as Molly's plus one, and he was horribly afraid that he had only been invited to piss Saul off, he just couldn't be sure, especially with the mood Molly was in, and had been in for the last few days. Saul's wife was actually very sweet to them both, making sure that he felt welcome, but she was obviously a little wary of Molly's tongue, which Charles had to accept could be very caustic when she felt like it. He was getting increasing worried about her, she was drinking steadily and he wanted to tell her to slow down but was very unsure of what sort of reaction he would get, so he stuck as close as he could until he began to feel like her warder. In the end he decided to just let her get on with it, she was being a complete pain in the arse, and it wasn't even as if she was speaking to him so he walked off and went to speak to Michelle, her mate from the first time he met her. He knew that Molly could see him chatting and laughing with Michelle, fetching her a drink and holding her plate while she served herself some salad and he knew that Molly was glowering at him, but for the first time, he didn't care. She disappeared from his view for a while, so that he began to worry that she had pushed off and left him there, he realised that he wouldn't put it past her, then she reappeared with some bloke who had his arm draped around her shoulders. Charles immediately joined them and introduced himself as Molly's boyfriend and heard Molly mutter "You wish", as he stared pointedly at the bloke's arm round her. The bloke hurriedly dropped his arm and walked away without saying another word, but Molly rounded on Charles, and, in a low, vicious voice, told him to mind his own fucking business, and that she didn't need anyone else to look after her, that she could look after herself, and that he wasn't her boyfriend, before she hurried after this bloke, whose name he didn't know. That was the point at which Charles gave up, followed her and told her he was going home and if she wanted a lift, she had to move herself now or she could make her own way home.

He had been slumped on the sofa for more than an hour, unable to believe what had just happened, turning it over and over in his mind and trying to decide what to do next, if anything at all, when the doorbell rang. Molly stood on the threshold, still with a truculent expression on her face, and still obviously spoiling for a fight.

"Can I come in?"

He nodded and stood to one side allowing her to come into the hallway, they didn't make eye contact and neither of them smiled or spoke until she went into the lounge.

"Can I have a drink?"

"You can have tea or coffee, nothing else because I think you've had enough" He was aware he was behaving like a warder again and was treating her as if she was Sam's age and was probably infuriating her. He would be infuriated if anyone spoke to him the way he was speaking to her.

"If that's all that's on offer, I'll have tea" She marched into the kitchen and put the kettle on, then leaned back against the kitchen table and refused to meet his eyes. He handed her a mug of tea and she muttered something and then looked at him and said;

"I suppose you're still mad at me?"

"A bit! What the hell was that all about, Mols, why did you suddenly start behaving like that? What the fuck got into you?"

"I tell you what got into me, you did! Always trying to change me, always knowing best what's best for me" Molly had started to yell at him "Wanting to tell me what I can and can't do, as if we were still in the fucking army and you're my fucking boss, but you never were my boss, were you? And you're never going to think that I am good enough as I am" Molly lost her temper and threw her mug of tea as hard as she could against the kitchen wall, where it smashed sending hot tea cascading down the wall and all over the floor. It was as if someone had lit the blue touch paper of the firework that was Molly Dawes as she whirled around the kitchen sweeping everything off the work surfaces, and picking up and throwing the things she missed, yelling "Fuck You" at the top of her voice over and over again as everything smashed on the floor. Charles was too shocked for a moment or two to move to limit the damage of her destructive rampage, but he was too late and he didn't want to get hit on the head, or anywhere else for that matter, with a heavy glass canister so he stood out of the way and waited for the storm to pass. It was only when she began to move into the lounge to start on the photos and bits and pieces that were on the side tables and window sills that he stepped in to stop her by grabbing her by the tops of her arms and shouting "Stop it, stop it, Molly". It was as if that action broke the damn of pent up feelings that she had been supressing for years as she began to hit him with all her strength and with a huge burst of energy, as she did her best to land blows to hurt him as much as she could. His first instinct was to stop her, but then he realised that he couldn't without hitting her back so he put his arms round his head to protect his head and face from the worst of her blows and waited for her of run out of steam. She was yelling "I hate you" over and over again, but he knew she wasn't only saying it to him, she was yelling at Webster and all the people who had shunned her and hurt her, at all the people who had let her down, at Smurf for dying, at her parents, he knew she had never told them the full story, and at him for not really understanding how she felt, how she needed to feel in control of her own life, the life he'd tried to control so that he could keep her safe. As soon as she began to run out of steam, she started sobbing, deep gut wrenching sobs as the tears poured down her face and she sank to her knees and bent over with her hands over her face, and cried her eyes out. He had a feeling that this was the first time she had really cried since it happened, that she had kept her emotions under rigid control for years.

It took a long time for the worst of the storm to pass, but he waited until she was gulping and hiccupping, then he bent down and picked her up and sat in the chair, holding her tightly to him on his lap and kissing the top of her head as he rocked her gently and kept saying "Ssh, it's okay, you're okay" until she dropped asleep, exhausted by her outburst. He carried her through to his bed and laid her down, covering her gently with the quilt and then went back to survey the disaster area that was his kitchen.

**Authors notes: I don't know about anyone else, but I'm feeling exhausted along with her. Sorry that this got a bit more angsty than I intended at the start, but it seemed right as I was writing it. Thanks for the lovely reviews, and for all you lovely people who have F &amp; F this story, please review if you can so that I know how you are feeling about this. The next chapter sees our hero try to start putting things back together for her, so hopefully it will be happier. **


	7. Chapter 7

An hour and a half later Charles surveyed what was left of his kitchen, together with the neatly wrapped newspaper packages of broken glass and china stacked by the waste bin. The biggest problem had been that everything was covered in a fine film of olive oil, sugar, rice and coffee granules which meant that the debris was very slippery and difficult to handle and the floor was lethal, like an ice rink. Four washes with hot soapy water had removed the worst from the floor but there were still slivers of glass which meant that no-one would be able to walk in there with bare feet anytime in the near future. His Nespresso machine had survived, but he only had one unbroken mug, the one he had been holding when Molly went into meltdown, all the rest and almost all of his glasses were neatly wrapped in paper on the bin.

He made a coffee and went and sat on the sofa to try to figure out what the hell to do next, he knew he was seriously out of his depth. When he had started seeing her she had been indulging in some bloody serious risky behaviour, but she had been happy and had seemed confident and in control of her life, at least as far as her job was concerned. Yes, she had problems and he had wanted to help her but now he wasn't sure whether he had been trying to do that for her or for himself because all he had succeeded in doing was making everything ten times worse for her and he hadn't a clue what to do about it. All he knew for certain about last night was that it had shown him just how much he cared about her, and that maybe his mother was right and that he loved her. It had torn him to pieces seeing her like that and knowing that there was nothing he could do about it, that maybe he wasn't the right person to help her and that maybe it was partially his fault and that he couldn't bear for her to be so upset and not be able to make everything better. He was pretty sure she needed better help than he could give, so he started to look up rape counselling services on his laptop, Molly had told him that she had seen a shrink but she didn't say whether it had helped or whether she had seen a counsellor, he wouldn't mind betting that she hadn't, it didn't strike him as her sort of thing at all. He knew now that he couldn't fix her, she had to fix herself.

He also e-mailed a couple of old army buddies, and some contacts he had from his days in Afghan, he had been thinking about it for a while and had now decided to try and call in some favours.

He went and lay down on the bed next to her, both of them were fully clothed. He was neerly as exhausted as she was, it had been a bloody emotional day which had left him feeling that he badly needed a hug from someone, almost as much as she did, but there was no-one, so he had to be tough for both of them.

The sun was just breaking through the early morning cloud when he woke the next morning, he hadn't closed the curtains the previous night, he hadn't really expected to sleep, and he was spooned against her back, his arm round her waist and his early morning erection straining to be free of his jogging bottoms so that he was very relieved that he hadn't stripped to his boxers the previous night, he was also very relieved that she was still fast asleep so that he could move away from her before she woke, God knows how she would have reacted if she had woken. Her face was still slightly puffy and red looking from crying and he fought the urge to smooth her tangled hair away from her face and run his thumbs under her eyes to remove the last smudges of black mascara, at one point the previous night she had had black mascara rivers pouring down her face.

"Sorry" She was whispering. He hadn't realised she had woken.

"What for?"

"You know what for, beating you up and that. Did I hurt you?" She was still almost whispering and her throat sounded husky as if it was sore. He laughed.

"If I say '_Yes'_, I'm going to look like a wimp for getting beaten up by a little girl half my size and if I say '_No'_ I'll be lying, so I'll say '_A bit'. _ Jesus, Mols you pack a hell of a punch for a pint size, don't you?"

"I'm sorry"

"I know you are, and anyway, none of it matters"

"What about all your stuff?"

"It's just stuff, we'll go shopping later and buy some mugs so that we can have a drink. Mind you, it's going to cost you a small fortune" he was laughing until he saw the expression on her face "It was a joke, just a joke. I could do with some new stuff anyway, most of that was pretty ancient"

"You're lying to make me feel better"

"Is it working?" He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Molly had been aware of him cuddling her when she woke up and had felt safe, warm and loved with his arm round her, she had also felt his erection nudging against her back and had wondered what would happen if she pressed her body back against him or put her hand down and touched him, both of which she suddenly wanted to do, when the memory of what had happened the previous night flooded her brain at the same time as he jerked away from her. She was mortified and horribly scared that it had been the final straw as far as he was concerned, she wouldn't blame him, she had been a real fuckmuppet this time.

"You get up and I'll go to Costa for some tea and coffee. Oh, and don't go in the kitchen with bare feet, there appears to be some broken glass on the floor. I've got no idea where that came from" he laughed.

"Why Costa?"

"Told you, we've got no mugs left"

Molly was predictably unimpressed with the idea of going for counselling, said that the shrink she saw was useless and she had not wanted to go and talk to some stranger, she had preferred to talk to someone she knew. When he asked who she had talked to, she shrugged her shoulders and said she couldn't find anyone she wanted to talk to at the time and then she asked him why he was so convinced that she was such a complete nut job that she needed to go and talk bollocks with a stranger now, because she didn't think so thanks very much. It was so obvious that she was avoiding the whole thing that he let it go, he knew he was wasting his time. It was his mother who turned the whole situation on its head. Charlie, Molly and Sam had been to the zoo where Molly and Sam had bonded over some particularly flamboyant baboon bums, which had reduced them both to fits of giggles so that Sam had described Molly as 'cool' as he and Charles were playing some extremely competitive games of snap, which involved a great deal of cheating and yelling, and a fair bit of snatching, with Charles shouting "That's not fair" and Sam yelling "Keep up dad", while Molly was helping Mrs James to clear the tea things away. After Sam had described Molly as cool he had floored his father by asking why she was so sad. Charles had not been surprised that Molly had got on well with Sam, he remembered her telling him all about her family and the mass of younger brothers and sisters she had, but also how she hadn't told her family what had happened to her because she had had to fight very hard to get their approval when she had first joined up and she didn't want them to see what a mistake she had made. At the time that had notched up another strike against Webster's name, but he had thought she was particularly cheerful that afternoon so was amazed at the insight of a ten year old, as well as being lost for an answer.

"So, Charlie tells me that you are going to let that piece of pond scum ruin the rest of your life" Mrs. James paused, then carried on "You know, I'm actually surprised Molly, you seem like the sort of girl who would fight back, not let him win"

"What's he been telling you?" Molly was immediately on the defensive.

"Nothing, just that you prefer to deal with things by yourself, but it isn't working is it? That creep has already taken three years of your life, isn't that enough? Isn't it time to try something different?"

"I dunno" Molly squirmed "I find it hard to talk to strangers about it, I think I'd rather talk to Charlie, and I don't really want to talk to him"

"No, he's completely the wrong person" She stopped and looked at Molly "You do know why he's all wrong, don't you?"

"No, only that he knows what a fu..bloody nightmare I am"

"Just think about it Molly, that's all, and if you really don't know, ask him."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"Because it's not my place to tell you, it's his, and anyway he'd never forgive me"

They were sitting in his stationary car outside her shared house in Fishponds with the engine turned off. Molly didn't ask him the question his mother had suggested but she did tell him that she had had a chat with his mum, or rather that his mum had had a chat with her.

"You don't want to take too much notice of what my mum says, she talks a load of codswallop sometimes" Charles' mind was boggling with the fear of what his mother might have said.

"I thought she made a lot of sense. She said that I should do this counselling bollocks you are all on about otherwise I was letting Webster win. It'd better work, cos I'm warning you….."

"You mean you're going to give it a go?"

"Yeah, well can't do any harm, can it?" Moll was embarrassed to admit her change of heart.

"Talks a lot of sense, my mum"

"I thought you said she talks a load of old codswallop" Molly started giggling.

"Nah, I didn't say that, did I?" Charles started laughing.

"Yeah you did actually. She said some other stuff as well" Charles stopped laughing as his heart sank and he waited for what was going to come next, he'd known it was a mistake leaving his mum alone with Molly.

"She said I should ask you how you feel about me"

"What, you're telling me that you don't know, you really don't know?"

"I dunno what to say, I know how I want you to feel, but that's not the same thing is it?" She didn't give him time to answer "When I woke up in your bed the other morning, you know after I went a bit ballistic, you was cuddling me and it felt like it was what I wanted, along with some other stuff as well" she giggled "I was going to show you, but then I remembered what I had done the night before and you jumped away from me, so I thought I had blown it with you"

"Now she tells me" he groaned as he started the car.

"Where are we going?"

"Home, I'm kidnapping you"

**Authors notes: Hope that everyone enjoyed this much happier chapter, although there are still some bumps and hurdles to get over as life starts to improve for both of them. Thank you for all your very supportive reviews, I did spend quite some time researching responses to sexual violence and how every victim recovers at their own pace and in their own way and while there is no magic cure for the trauma, specialist rape counselling can help enormously. I tried to be sensitive in the description of what happened to Molly, I am not a lover of very explicit descriptions, I think that as we are all adults, we can all fill in the gaps for ourselves. Please review and let me know how you feel.**


	8. Chapter 8

One look at Molly's face told him that this was not going to be the night of his dreams, the closer they got to his flat the more tense she was getting, staring straight ahead, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth and twisting her hands together in her lap, hands that were rigid with tension.

"Hey, stop worrying, nothing's going to happen, we're not going to do anything, okay?"

"Why? Don't you want to?" He knew that she had turned to look at him.

"That's a dumb question" he laughed at her "Of course I want to, but you're not ready, I can see you're not, and I don't want to make love to someone who thinks they have to because they've sort of said they will or because they think they owe me something or because they think I'll piss off if they don't, I'm not going anywhere, and I don't think you are either, so we have all the time in the world, okay?" He wished he meant it as wholeheartedly as he was saying it, somewhere in the back of his brain, he was still arrogant enough to believe that he could make everything right by sleeping with her, but he didn't want to risk losing her if it all went wrong, and she was so tense it was almost bound to. "We'll go home and have a look at the laptop and decide which of these magic wand people are going to have the pleasure of your company as they help you feel better" He saw her huge sigh of relief and knew he had done the right thing, for her anyway, he wasn't so sure about himself.

He had honestly believed it was just a matter of picking someone, making an appointment, and then going along in a few days' time to chat with this expert who would have all the answers. That was his first wrong assumption. They were both appalled to find that there were huge waiting lists for all the counsellors, anything from 6 months onwards, except for urgent referrals who might, if they were very lucky or very traumatised, get to see someone in 3. She took all the necessary steps to put her name down on one of the lists but Charles wasn't convinced that she would actually go through with it if she had to wait months, Molly was much more of an immediate sort of person, so he found the whole thing very frustrating.

She was well into her first term at Uni when the breakthrough came. He was used to her alternating between enjoyment of the course and being appalled at the ages and relative immaturity of her fellow students, they were all at least 5 or 6 years younger than her but there was an enormous gulf of life experience between them, they were all school leavers and none of them had even done a gap year. She said they made her feel bloody ancient and that their idea of a great evening was to drink themselves sick in the student union bar and then shag someone, probably a random someone that they hardly knew and that she didn't know whether to be appalled or jealous. She wanted to tell some of the girls to be careful, but she couldn't without telling them a whole lot of stuff she didn't want to share. Charles asked her how she thought he would fit in, so she looked him up and down and cracked up laughing, saying "Hello Grandpa". Shortly after she had started at Uni he had given her a key to the flat, because although she refused point blank to move in, saying that they weren't a proper couple and he might want to bring someone else home one day, even though she knew he would never do that, she often came there straight from lectures and copied up her lecture notes or even took a nap, or got some food ready. Molly would tell anyone who asked that she didn't cook but she was ace at heating Marks and Spencer's ready meals in the microwave, so he was used to her being there when he got home, something that seemed absolutely right to him. He wasn't used to her being so pale and silent that he began to think she was feeling ill, when she told him that she had found a counsellor, actually on campus, and had started to see her but that she didn't want to talk about it. Over the next few weeks she told him bits and pieces but mainly that the counsellor didn't say much at all, just encouraged her to talk about the whole thing, that the counsellor wasn't there to give her the answers but to help her work out the answers for herself. Sometimes it seemed as if it was all fine and sometimes she was very tearful after the sessions, but Charles knew better now than to ask her what was wrong, she would never tell him, not in a million years, she didn't want to share. One night however, it was all different, Molly was tetchy, strung out and her mood was very reminiscent of the night she went into meltdown, so Charles began to watch her anxiously which also got on her nerves, until she snapped and flounced out of the flat saying "I'm going home, I want to be on my own, don't follow me", before disappearing.

She stayed away for three days, three days when Charles didn't have a clue where she was, she wasn't answering her mobile or returning any of his messages or texts, so that he was quietly going insane with worry, and he began to think that things would never really get better and maybe he should start thinking about trying to move on. She was aware of his phone calls and texts but was so wrapped up in her own misery that she didn't want to see or speak to anyone, even him. The counsellor had forced her to look at why she had always blamed herself for the attack, had always felt that it was her own fault, and when she had loudly denied that she did any such thing, had put her head on one side and said "Really, are you sure about that?" so that Molly had been forced to look at the way she'd reacted, not to the outside world but inside her own head, where she'd been convinced that she was responsible, had done something to encourage him, that she should have been able to fight him off, that she should have been able to get the authorities to believe her, she was telling the truth after all. That it was, in some way, all her own fault! The counsellor had told her to think about the fact that rape was as much about power and control as anything else and had suggested that she spent time looking at all the 'reasons' she had conjured up to blame herself and then take each of those reasons in turn, look at them and dismiss them as the rubbish they were, and to look at how the actions of someone else had robbed her of her free will and left her feeling responsible for things she had had no control over. She accepted for the first time that she had been the victim of a random attack from a flawed bloke and that none of it was her fault.

When Molly let herself into the flat she knew immediately that he wasn't in, there was a table lamp on the hall table that he only left on if he was going out and it was shining softly, so she turned the heating up slightly and curled up on the sofa, wondering where the hell he was, she was sure that they hadn't had any plans to go out tonight, maybe he was getting something to eat or having a drink with someone. It didn't cross her mind to start with that he might be with someone else. She put the television on, but it was the usual Saturday night desert as far as entertainment was concerned, so she switched it off and closed the curtains, it was a foul night, wet, cold and windy, winter had arrived with a vengeance, and she waited. And waited and watched the clock go round, and still waited, then fell asleep on the sofa. When she woke up it was past two o'clock, and she was frozen, shivering violently because the heating had gone off, and he still wasn't home. She thought about going in the spare bed but it wasn't made up and she was too cold and tired to do it, so she crawled into his bed and wrapped herself in the duvet which smelt of him, and began to speculate about where he was and, more importantly, who he was with as she watched the clock tick the minutes past, one by one. Everything was closed by now, only the nightclubs would be open and he didn't do nightclubs, so he had to have gone to someone's place to sleep over, not that anyone could blame him, she'd been an absolute nightmare, but who was he with? Michelle? She fancied him and she wouldn't put it past her, someone he had met at work? Or someone he had been seeing that she knew nothing about at all. He was so bleeding good looking that he could probably have any woman he wanted, so why the hell would he want to stick with her? Flaky, moody, wouldn't sleep with him, except that she would, she wanted to but it seemed like she had left it too late, story of her life really. She lay there listening to the rain beating against the window and fell asleep again, intending to get up really early and leave before he got back, just in case he brought her back with him, she was sure she couldn't bear that. After all this was his place, she had no right to be here, she had said she didn't want to move in so that he was free to bring someone back here, but she knew she had been lying because the thought of it was breaking her heart.

It was the sound of him moving about making coffee and singing along to some tune on the radio that woke her, and she knew it was far too late to escape without him seeing her. She lay there for a few minutes trying to hear if there was someone with him, and was relieved that she couldn't hear anyone, what she did feel, however, was a huge surge of jealousy because it sounded as if whoever he had been with had made him really happy. She got up and made her way to the kitchen thinking that this was just like the first time she had been in this flat, waking up after sleeping with all her clothes on so she was all crumpled, but without the crippling hangover this time.

"Jesus, Molly, what the fuck are you doing here?" He hadn't heard her come in the kitchen and she'd startled him. Molly didn't want to answer him, nor was she convinced that he sounded exactly overjoyed to see her, as far as she was concerned even more evidence of him playing away.

"Where've you been?"

"What do you mean, 'where have I been'?" Charles stared at her incredulously "More to the point, where the fuck have you been? Staying away for three whole days and nights, no phone calls, no texts to say that you're okay, worrying me to death and then you get mad because I stayed out for one night, how does that work Molly?"

"I was at mine, I had some stuff to sort, and at least I wasn't with someone else"

"Is that what you think, that I was with someone else?"

"Well, were you?"

"Yes I was as it happens." She squeezed her eyes tight shut "I was with my mum and Sam, it was her birthday yesterday, remember? We were all invited but you went AWOL and I didn't know where you were, so I had a couple of drinks and decided to stay over as it was such a horrible night, and I didn't know I had anything to get back for. Why didn't you phone me?"

Oh God, she remembered all about it now. "I know, I should have, but I wanted to surprise you, I'm sorry"

"Well you did that alright, you scared the shit out of me, but you still haven't told me why you're here"

"Charlie, can you give me a hug please?" Suddenly he didn't care why she was there, it just didn't matter.

"Come here"

He pulled her close as she put her arms tightly round his waist and moulded her body against his solidity, then felt him hardening against her, "Sorry" he whispered "You have this effect on me, I can't help it"

"Good" She stood on tip toes and kissed his lips gently "Why are you so tall?" she giggled "I can't reach you properly" He bent his head and kissed her, "Well, let's lie down and then it won't matter that you're too small"

"I'm not too small"

"No, you're not, you're perfect, but I still think we should lie down"

He took her by the hand and pulled her into the bedroom, then had a sudden moment of doubt. "Mol, you are sure about this aren't you? Please say if you're not, I don't think I can bear it if you freak out on me again"

"I'm sure" and to prove it she pulled off her heavy sweater and then took his hand and placed it on her breast over her lace bra so that his thumb was over her nipple which was already hardening.

"Christ, you're beautiful" he unhooked her bra and threw it on the floor with her sweater then cupped her breasts with his hands and started to rub his thumbs over her nipples as he listened to the way her breathing was changing. He moved his hands down and slid her jeans over her hips and then caught his breath as her small hands cupped him through his own jeans, making him suddenly frantic to be naked and holding her, skin against skin, so he yanked off the rest of his clothing and pulled off her knickers and held her tightly against him, trying hard to control himself and slow down. They started caressing and kissing each other until both of them were desperate to make love, Charlie was a bit concerned about the condom moment, he couldn't help remembering that she had freaked out at this point last time, something which he was sure had to do with Webster, he remembered her saying that Webster had used one, but he couldn't risk making love to her without, he knew he would have zero self-control.

"Mols, we need to use a condom"

"I know"

His hands were shaking, a mixture of longing, need and adrenalin making him fumble slightly, when her little hands moved his out of the way and put it on for him, one of the most erotic moments he had ever known, so much so that he had to struggle to think about something else or it would have all been over before it really started. It wasn't an award winning performance, he didn't show the incredible concentration or kind of stamina that leads to multiple orgasms, in fact he had been forced to conjugate Latin verbs in his head to last as long as he had, but feeling the moment when she clenched all her internal muscles and her breathing became short and ragged as she reached her orgasm meant that he had been able to stop thinking and allow his body to react. Their mutual explosion of ecstatic pleasure had removed any necessity for words, and now he was propped on his hands to avoid crushing her as they looked into each other's eyes with identical smirks of satisfaction on their faces and he dropped the occasional light kiss on her lips, the tip of her nose and the corners of her eyes as they both revelled in the pure happiness of the moment.

"Where did you learn to do that?" He picked up the condom wrapper and then heartily wished he hadn't asked that question, he didn't want to hear the answer.

"At school"

"WHAT? What kind of bloody school did you go to for Christ's sake?" He started laughing.

"Oh, don't worry, I never went much anyway" She started to giggle "It was hygiene class or sex education or something, they made us practise with a banana. I always knew it would come in handy one day, mind you, it's the only thing I ever learned there that has!"

At the exact moment that they broke into fits of laughter, an e-mail dropped into his in-box, an e-mail he had given up expecting long ago, one that he had almost forgotten about but one which he wouldn't be able to ignore.

**Authors notes: Sorry, if anyone is disappointed at the lack of explicit smut, I just can't write it, it feels awkward and contrived and I hate what I've written when I read it back, so I have to stick with what I feel comfortable with. I really admire those that can write it, but I can't. Thanks for all your lovely reviews, hope you enjoy this chapter and that it leaves you feeling good. Please review if you can bear to, I love hearing from you.**


	9. Chapter 9

"No. I can't, I've gotta go" Molly tried hard to get up out bed but Charles was holding onto her, they were both laughing. It was early the next day, Monday morning and she had a 9.00 lecture which he was trying to persuade her to miss.

"Oh, come on Molls, no-one expects students to get up before lunchtime, why should you be any different?"

"I just am, and the professor relies on me to turn up, most of the lazy little tossers don't bother with the early stuff"

"Tell him sorry, but I needed you more than he did today"

"She, she's a woman, not a bloke and I'm supposed to be studying, not spending all my days in bed with you. Do you wake up like that every morning?" she pointed to his erection and giggled.

"Yep"

"What did you do about it before I was here? No, on second thoughts don't tell me, I don't wanna know" She laughed at him.

"Cheeky mare, I used to ignore it until it went away, but I've got a much better plan for this morning". He pulled her back into bed properly and began to kiss her until she forgot all about her resolution to get up and attend her lecture and began to kiss him back.

Later, much later, she pointed out that it might be a good idea to alter the time of the alarm, because she couldn't be late or cut lectures every day, or that maybe she should hang on to Fishponds and sleep there the nights before early lectures, knowing full well that he wouldn't see that as a possible solution, but wanting to hear him say it.

They had spent most of the previous day in bed, only really getting up to use the bathroom, get a drink or something to eat, mostly toast because it was quick to prepare and once they had established that he wasn't allowed to put Marmite on his, at least not if he wanted to kiss her he wasn't, it had kept the pangs of hunger away quite nicely. Charles couldn't help feeling that it was one of the best days of his life and Molly knew it was of hers, all her experiences pre-Webster had been of casual, meaningless encounters with hasty blokes and one long-term very unsatisfying relationship with a selfish arsehole who had never bothered to ask himself or her whether she got any enjoyment out of what they were doing, either because he knew that she didn't or he didn't care! This was different. Charles had asked her to move in, pointing out that she spent most of her days at the flat anyway and that as they were now a proper couple, he had no intentions of sleeping apart from her from now on.

"I want to kiss you goodnight and snuggle up with you, not kiss you goodnight and watch you go into a different house to sleep, I've done enough of that"

"I'll still have to pay me rent and that until the end of the lease, I can't just piss off and leave the others in the lurch"

"Of course not, we'll pay the rent and something towards the utility bills"

"I will, not we will"

"We'll argue about it later"

"What about the rent here?"

"What, you think you should pay the landlord?"

"Yeah, well at least a share cos its a well nice gaffe and I bet it's bloody expensive, but I can't live here rent free"

"Well, I'm the landlord and I'll accept payment in kind, any kind" He laughed as he started kissing his way down from her neck to her breasts and they got side tracked completely from the matter of rent.

She had told him about what the counsellor had made her do, about the exercise that had made her see things more clearly on the issue of blame, and he had been predictably furious that she had ever felt that any of it was her fault when it had all been the fault of the shitty little worm that was Webster. He had demanded to know why she hadn't told him what she thought and then finally understood when she explained that she knew what he would have said but what anyone else thought or said didn't really count, regardless of how much she cared for them, she had to think it and feel it and really believe It herself for it to make any difference, and now she did.

All in all, it was almost thirty six hours before Charles got to open his in-box to read his e-mails and then he couldn't make a phone call because Molly was putting her stuff away and he didn't want her to hear him. Although he was burning with curiosity, it would have to wait until the morning when he was in the office. They had spent the afternoon moving her out of the Fishponds house and she was singing away, sounding off-key but incredibly happy and he had no intentions of doing anything to spoil that. The e-mail was from Simon Evans, Major Simon Evans, a Company Commander he had known from their Sandhurst days, and was in response to the e-mail he had sent out on the night of Molly's meltdown. From the day that Molly had first told him what Webster had done, he had been convinced that it would not be a one-off lone episode, that Webster had probably done something similar pre-Molly and had almost certainly carried on doing it after, the fact that he had got away with it so easily would have encouraged him to do it again and again, his arrogance would have told him he was fireproof, and that he was entitled, his whole attitude was that some people count, that is, him, and some people don't, that is any female who he decided to use and abuse and Charles had still been burning with shame that he had been one of those gullible people who had believed his story. His e-mail had simply said,

"_Lt. Tobias Christopher Webster (Toby or Tobes), what has he been up to recently? Anything known or suspected? especially with the girls. Alleged, proved or just rumours, would appreciate it if you could let me know._

He had sent the e-mail to a number of contacts and friends still in, including Simon Evans, but had only had negative responses, either people didn't know him or if they did, they didn't know anything suspect about him, or weren't prepared to tell him if they did, so that he was almost at the point of admitting he was wrong and accepting that maybe it was a one-off. Then this;

"_Toby Webster, what and why? Don't e-mail, call me on my private number, 07739645309 anytime._

They spent the evening curled up on the sofa discussing their plans for Christmas, which was less than two weeks away and Molly called her mother and told her about her change of address and the fact that she had moved in with someone her family had never even heard of, which hadn't appeared to go down terribly well, in fact at one point Molly had got up and gone in the kitchen and closed the door. Charles could hear her shouting, even if he couldn't quite make out what she was shouting, as his mind kept spinning back to that e-mail and he was consumed with curiosity, but she came back with her face wreathed in smiles and told him that they were invited for Boxing Day and that she had said yes for both of them. They agreed to spend Christmas Day with his mum, firstly because she was on her own and because he had already agreed to spend the day with her and it seemed mean to let her down at the last minute, even if they would have liked to spend the day alone. "Next year" Molly whispered and he forgot all about e-mails and Simon Evans and Webster and started kissing her.

She didn't have any lectures until lunchtime the next day, so he left her in bed just after eight, kissed her goodbye and promised to call her at half past ten to make sure she was up and about, loving the easy domesticity about it, then got in his car and called Simon Evans, he really couldn't wait until he got to his office, it was really playing on his mind, and was then hugely disappointed when his call went straight to voice mail. "Shit" he bashed the steering wheel in frustration hoping that he hadn't missed the boat completely and decided not to leave a message, but to keep trying through the day. He finally got hold of him just after two when he was about to start climbing the walls with frustration. After exchanging the usual greetings, Simon went straight in and asked him what his interest was in Webster then explained that he needed to know because he was Webster's CO and was being drawn into a, he hesitated before he finished his sentence, situation he wasn't entirely comfortable with. Charles applauded him for his insight and told him that he wished he had been as astute when Webster reported to him.

Neither had said what they were talking about, but they both knew. Charles was the first to fill in the blanks, told Simon what had happened in Cyprus over three years ago and how he had been suckered in to helping Webster evade the consequences of his actions and how bad he felt about his part in the whole thing and how the girl in question had struggled in the army afterwards and how they had let her down and that she had only recently started to be able to move on with her life, but she had needed counselling to help her do it. Simon immediately asked him how he knew all this and Charles had been forced to admit that he had met her by chance some months ago, and she had recently moved in with him, although he didn't say how recently, and that he loved her. He also had to admit that he wanted Webster punished, but he knew it probably wasn't going to happen.

Simon told him that the current situation was slightly different, so that Charles' heart sank, but only in as much as the girl wasn't in the army, and that the initial investigation had not been by the but by the civilian police, who had arrested Webster on suspicion of serious sexual assault, apparently a sort of euphemism for rape, and then let him out on police bail, which according to Simon, meant that they didn't believe a word he had told them but they couldn't prove he was lying, they needed more evidence. A group of officers, including Simon, had been attending a Christmas party at the Hogs Back Hotel near Aldershot, where there had been a group of girls attending the same party and the two groups had obviously mingled. They had all been drinking quite heavily but no-one had seemed drunk and he had only noticed Webster and the girl because he had kept draping his arm round her shoulders and she kept shrugging him off, but they both kept laughing and with hindsight, Simon was not convinced that Webster hadn't deliberately drawn attention to himself and the girl. They had disappeared after a while and he had gone home, only to be woken by the police early next morning to give a statement because the girl had accused Webster and another, unknown, officer of assaulting her. She said that the other one had held her down and Webster had raped her. Webster had immediately admitted he had had sex with her but he maintained that she had consented then changed her mind because he was a bit rough and had hurt her a bit.

Simon hadn't been able to throw any light on anything, could only swear that they had been together earlier in the evening and it had looked amicable, and that they had been drinking, so they released Webster on bail, but Simon was unhappy, he thought Webster looked a little too pleased with himself and was very harsh about the girl, almost triumphant, so he had looked up Webster's record and found Cyprus and another couple of oblique records of some complaints which had been dropped, but when he found the Cyprus record he had seen that Charles was the CO involved and remembered his e-mail and got in touch.

"I knew it, the little shit has done it again, almost exactly what he did to Molly. What are the Redcaps doing about him?"

"Well, nothing as such, they are all too busy fighting with the civilian coppers about whose jurisdiction it is, the Redcaps are refusing to co-operate and won't hand over his records and the civvies can't proceed with what they've got, it's not enough. Did you ever have any idea who the other bloke was?"

"No, no-one believed Molly at the time that there had been some other bloke, have you got a clue who it might be? If it's the same bloke it should be easy enough to see who's served with him for a long time"

"No, there isn't anyone who fits that bill, I've looked, but I'd like to wring his fucking neck though whoever he is"

"Yeah, me too. What can we do, Simon?

"Will your Molly talk to the coppers about what happened to her? It may be enough to help them press charges"

"Oh I don't know, Simon, she's only just started to get over it, I don't know if it's the best plan for her to rake it all up again. It's been bloody difficult for her but she's happy now and I don't want to wreck that, I love her too much" He thought about it for a moment, and knew that he couldn't make that decision for her, she would be livid with him if he did. "Look, give me the details of the civvies involved and I'll speak to her, see what she wants to do, but I'm not making any promises, okay?"

**Authors notes: I know these chapters are a bit long but I get swept up in my parallel universe where these people are real and their struggles are really happening and keep playing on my mind so that I lose myself in it and have to keep going. Thanks for all your lovely reviews, please carry on letting me know what you think.**


	10. Chapter 10

Sunday evening, almost a week since he had spoken to Simon Evans and he still hadn't told her. Oh, he'd thought about it, decided to do it, geared up with what he was going to say, rehearsed it in his head and got ready to deliver it, and then watched her dance around the flat in an almost visible bubble of happiness and put it off again. He knew he was being a coward, that if he was going to tell her he couldn't put it off for ever and that he had to tell her, he had no choice, it wasn't his secret to keep and the gap between knowing about it and telling her about it was getting far too wide to explain away, but he just couldn't bring himself to destroy her happy mood. He was pretending to read the Sunday papers as she lay full length on the sofa carrying on a text conversation with one of her younger sisters, which, judging by the giggles, was probably either very insulting about someone, he hoped it wasn't him, or filthy, and his money was on filthy. She had asked him twice what was the matter with him and he had denied that there was anything wrong, but he wasn't sure how convincing he had been.

"Alright, that's it, how long are you gonna keep on pretending to read that bleeding paper?" He hadn't realised that she had finished texting Jade or Bella, whoever it had, been and was standing over him, or that he had been staring into space for the last God knows how long.

"I am reading the paper, I was just thinking about something in an article I just read" He had no idea why he was lying, the ideal opportunity to come clean had just presented itself and here he was avoiding it again.

"No you weren't, you haven't turned the page for bleeding ages and you was staring into space and you've been worrying about something for days, I can always tell, cos you do that thing with your bottom lip and running your hand through your hair, so stop lying and tell me, cos you're scaring me. Is it that you want me to move out, is that it? have you decided that we're a mistake? Cos if you have, you just have to say. They haven't let me room at Fishponds, I can always move back in"

"What? What the hell are you talking about? " he was horrified "Of course we're not a mistake and of course I don't want you to move out, I love you, you know you're the only thing that matters to me, well apart from Sam that is, oh, and my mum," He laughed "I only want to make you happy, you know that"

"Then what's wrong? tell me please"

"Yeah you're right there is something I have to talk to you about," he took a deep breath and grimaced "It's Webster"

"Oh bloody hell, Charlie, I thought we was past all that, that we was gonna put him away and stop thinking about him, just get on with things together"

"Come here" he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms round her "It's not that, Mols, it's about what he's done now, he's done it again to some other poor girl, exactly the same thing as he did to you"

"How do you know?"

"Because Simon Evans, his CO, is a sort of mate of mine from Sandhurst and he called me a couple of days ago to talk about it. He saw my name on Webster's record from Cyprus and he wanted to know what I thought about it now, because he's not convinced by Webster's bollocks. Obviously he didn't know anything about you or us, but he does now and he's even more convinced that Webster needs locking up" Charles had no idea why he was being so economical with the truth, why he just didn't confess to the e-mail, except that he was afraid she would think he had interfered and that had stirred this all up again.

"What they doing about him?"

"Well that's the point, nothing at the moment! The civilian coppers arrested him but the Redcaps are playing silly buggers, more interested in playing 'he's in the army so he's ours and we're in charge' than making sure a scumbag gets what's coming to him" He took a deep breath and then carried on, closing his eyes as he spoke "The coppers have released him on police bail, but they need some help, Mol, they need someone to make a statement that shows Webster makes a habit of this, that it isn't just about some girl who changed her mind, or that Webster didn't hear her when she said 'no' to the question, it's that he doesn't even bother asking the fucking question."

Molly smirked in spite of herself "Good choice of word there, Charlie, did you choose it on purpose?" He laughed, glad that she hadn't immediately spun out of control "So let me get this straight, you and this Evans geezer want me to go to the coppers and tell them what he did to me in Cyprus, is that it? Isn't a bit late? "

"I don't know, they'll tell us if it is, but if it isn't, will you do it? I mean you don't have to, you really, really don't have to, I wouldn't blame you if you said no, I'd understand, not that it's anything to do with me, I mean.." She interrupted him,

"Are you trying to encourage me or put me off doing it? She shook her head "Of course I'm gonna do it, not that I think I can be much use, I haven't seen the bastard for three years, but you never know, it might be worth a try and it could be me what wipes that smile off his gob"

"Can I speak to Inspector Richards, please?"

"Um, no he doesn't know me, my name's Molly, Molly Dawes and I wanna speak to him about Toby Webster"

"Oh, not really, I mean you're in Guildford and I'm in Bristol, so it's a bit of a trek to just pop in on the off-chance, innit? I really need to speak to him and maybe make an appointment to come and see him"

"Inspector Richards? …. Call me Molly, please…yeah, I know you're dealing with some stuff about Toby Webster, you know, the army bloke? ….. I wanna come and talk to you about what happened with him in Cyprus couple of years ago"

"What, not before then? …Oh, I see….what does that mean then? …. Okay, I'll see you at 11.00 on the 29th at Guildford nick….Yeah, and you, bye"

"Well, what did he say?" Charles was consumed by curiosity.

"Apparently there's no rush because Webster's on police bail and has to report back to them on the 20th January, and then they can extend that if they want to, and the army can't shift him or nothing while he's on that bail so the 29th it is, I don't think he's that keen actually, maybe I should think about this, it might not be worth the petrol"

As Molly tried very hard to put the niggle of anxiety to the back of her mind, Christmas Day started out being very quiet and very grown up, and if Molly was being absolutely honest, used as she was to the riotously noisy Dawes' family bashes, very dull, what with no kids and everyone stone cold sober, but things changed dramatically in the late afternoon when Rebecca dropped Sam off to spend the evening and night with his father and grandmother. They started playing monopoly with Molly as banker and she and Sam discovered multiple ways to cheat. It was all going very well and Sam was fast becoming the property magnate of the game, when Molly got a bit too blatant with handing handfuls of cash to Sam under the table and their giggling had started to become more and more obvious so that eventually Charles noticed what was going on and cried 'foul', at which point they abandoned monopoly and played trivial pursuit instead, which Molly and Sam cheated at with the same practised efficiency as they used when cheating at monopoly. Mouthing the answers at one another and doing a spot of miming behind Charles' back, with hilarious results when they couldn't quite understand each other's performances, meant that the game was soon over with Sam declared the out and out winner, although Charles couldn't quite remember him answering all the questions correctly to win the coloured segments, he knew Molly had awarded them for 'nearly right' a lot of the time, and he had allowed her to deliberately distract him when Sam was throwing the dice, so that Sam could claim the number he needed whether he threw it or not. Although Charles was sure that it was a wrong principle or something and that Rebecca would be appalled at such blatant bending of the rules of behaviour, it didn't matter, it had been fun. More fun than explaining to Molly about the house.

His mum had made some comment about when they moved in and lived there and Molly had raised her eyebrows in horror, obviously thinking that they were going to live with his mum, so Charles had been forced to explain that the house was part of a trust so it couldn't be sold off and that he would be expected to live there when his mum moved out, and his mum wanted to move on sooner rather than later, the house was far too big for one person.

"It's far too bleeding big for two people" Molly who had been completely overawed by the place and wasn't exactly ecstatic about the idea of living there "Who the fuck's going to clean it, not me that's for sure. If I have to live here we'd have to have a cleaner, and I don't hold with cleaners, I'd have to clean up before they arrived, cos otherwise I'd be scared they'd think I'm a slut"

They went to bed early, Charles' mum because she was being tactful and Molly and Charles because they wanted to.

"Thank you" he put his arms round her and kissed the tip of her nose, missing the toothpaste round her mouth as she brushed her teeth vigorously.

"You're welcome" she spat in the basin, then looked up at him "What for? what did I do?"

"Sam had a great time, that was probably the best Christmas evening he's had since he was a little kid, definitely the best since Rebecca and I screwed it up, so thanks"

"I've said, you're welcome, I enjoyed it"

"Well, now it's my turn to have the best Christmas evening I can remember" He lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom "And I'll see if I can arrange for you to enjoy it as well, if you like"

"Blimey, that's bloody big of you"

"I know"

Boxing Day started too early for both of them, seeing that they hadn't had a lot of sleep for people who had gone to bed so early and Charles was aware that Molly had the look of a cat who had got the cream, satisfaction was written all over her face which, together with the fact that they kept catching each other's eye and smiling then finding it almost impossible to tear their gaze away, and touching each other with fleeting little touches, meant that this probably wasn't the best morning to be meeting her parents. She stretched her arms above her head and arched her back like a cat in the sun and he wanted nothing more than to abandon plans to go to her family and take her straight back to bed instead. She had given him a long list of things he wasn't allowed to mention, starting with Webster, then the army, then Cyprus, then her job with Saul, then how they met, he had stopped her there and said it would be easier if she could tell him what he was allowed to say, at which point she had frowned and stared at him, then shook her head,

"Nothing" She looked at him anxiously "Let's stop at home instead"

In the end it went quite well, their passage was certainly helped by the huge pile of gifts that they had bought with them, especially with the younger members of the family, although Charles was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer noise and chaotic busyness of the household, there seemed to be people everywhere he looked, noisy people, both kids and adults and they were all talking at once, no-one appeared to be listening to a word that anyone else was saying. It didn't take long for Molly to join in with the rest and although she tried her best to drag him into the conversations, he just smiled at everyone and shook his head, totally out of his depth. Lunch was riotous, Jamie Oliver it wasn't, the potatoes were underdone and the sprouts were cooked to death, and no-one made polite comments, everyone said exactly what they thought and no-one took offence, well not that he could see anyway, although Molly's mum did say that anyone who didn't like it was welcome to cook it themselves next year. Molly's dad was more than a bit pissed and he and her Nan spent the whole meal insulting each other, which made Charlie uncomfortable to begin with but no-one else seemed to take a blind bit of notice, so apparently it was a regular event. Everyone was shouting and laughing and teasing each other and some of the younger kids were bickering over who had pulled the most crackers, it was the noisiest meal that Charles had ever been part of, except when he had been in the army, so that he wondered for a moment what the hell Molly had made of lunch at his mother's yesterday. No-one interrogated him and he didn't think he had strayed into any of the no-go areas, but he was sure that at some point in the future, when it wasn't Christmas, he was going to get the third degree, probably not from her mother or father, he wasn't sure that her father even knew who he was, but from the lady who had invited him to call her Nan, he had a feeling she was pretty formidable. They left early, both exhausted from their late night and early morning and he was worn out by the sheer volume of the day. Molly fell asleep in the car, but he had to wake her up to talk to him to stop him dropping off as well, so they did have a genuine early night, falling asleep in their own bed in a quiet cocoon of warmth, comfort and each other.

Guildford Police Station was a pretty daunting place for someone who was as nervous as Molly was. She was fidgeting constantly as she waited, not at all sure that she should be there, she was terrified that they were going to think that she was wasting their time, that it had all been too long ago and that she was just making a fuss to get her own back on him. Charles had insisted that he go with her, saying that he wasn't prepared to let her out of his sight. A short, middle aged and chubby man came towards her with his hand outstretched, he looked reassuringly like someone's uncle.

"Miss Dawes? Molly? Good morning, I'm Inspector Richards, would you like to come with me?" Then, as Charles got up to go with her, he turned and told him to wait there and someone would get him a coffee or tea and that he'd take good care of her and they'd see him shortly, giving Charles no choice but to do as he was told, so he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and told her that she'd be okay and then watched her go with a real mask of longing on his face. He would have given anything to have gone for her or at least to have gone with her but he couldn't, all he could do was sit and wait, and he wished fervently that he had never heard of Simon Evans.

**Authors notes: Everyday life happens even when there are traumas going on, so I decided to include both in this chapter especially as it was set at Christmas. (You can see what kind of board games we play in our house at Christmas, may the best cheat win) Thanks for your lovely reviews. I am in wholehearted agreement with the Klip Doctor when he says about how important reviews are to us, it isn't really a matter of ego, it's just that it's the only real way we have of knowing whether people are reading what we write, let alone whether they are enjoying it, so please, please review for me. **


	11. Chapter 11

She had expected it to be hard, she had suspected that Charlie was wrong when he said it wouldn't be too bad, he was, as usual, trying too hard to make her feel better, but she was not prepared for how hard it actually was, and being taped made her uncomfortable as she slowly realised how much a waste of time and effort it all felt now that she had finished telling them the whole story. Sergeant Morris was with Inspector Richards and was a motherly sort of woman, her hair was a bit scruffy, she wasn't wearing any lipstick but she had a nice smile and Molly was glad she was there. It was easier to tell her some of the more embarrassing stuff, and she was very patient, didn't make her feel stupid because her memory had started to close over some of the details. She knew it was probably the result of the counselling, it had started the healing, but it meant that she had to dig really deep to try and remember things she had worked incredibly hard to forget, and it hurt, it hurt like hell. What she most wanted to do was pick up her coat and run, and never have to think about any of it ever again, but she couldn't, he was still talking to her and she realised that she hadn't really heard a thing he'd said after his bombshell. Apparently, just because they could prove that Webster had a track record it wouldn't be treated as evidence that he had done it this time. So she had just put herself through another nightmare for nothing. Richards was trying to explain something about Webster being prosecuted for something, that there was no time limit on sexual assault, but Molly hadn't followed what he'd been saying, well, she hadn't actually been listening, so she looked at him blankly when he asked her if she understood. He turned very kind and asked her if she wanted a cup of tea or something, he could obviously see that tears were not far off, but she declined, she knew she couldn't have swallowed it, the lump in her throat was far too big.

Sergeant Morris patiently explained what the options were again and pointed out that if Molly made a formal complaint against Webster, accusing him of rape, or serious sexual assault as they called it, the fact that the two cases were virtually identical would enable them to re-arrest and charge him on suspicion of serial rape and the fact that he had never denied having sex with his 'victims', it was just the question of consent, meant that the lack of DNA was irrelevant and that it would be up to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if they had enough to proceed against him. But, and Sergeant Morris emphasised that it was a huge but, she had to be very sure, because if he was charged and it got to court it wouldn't be easy for Molly, the defence would try very hard to destroy her credibility, citing the army's reaction, her PTSD when she was repatriated to the U.K., the fact that she had been seeing a psychiatrist, that she was medically discharged, the list was almost endless, so she should really take some time to think about what she wanted to do. Molly just stared at her in horror, the woman had made her sound like some sort of nut job, and speaking of jobs, how the hell would her job for Sleaze Ball go down with a jury, let alone if they found out how she met Charlie? Logically, she knew that wouldn't happen, she wasn't telling anyone and he certainly wouldn't, but panic was setting in and she hadn't even mentioned her previous job to the police.

They prepared and got her to sign her statement so that it was all ready if she decided to do it, it would avoid her having to come back and go through it all again, well not until it got to court anyway, and she gave her consent for them to get her record from the MOD because it should include the reports from the M.O. and the female Redcap, but Molly was now in a complete daze, she was on auto-pilot as she felt as if she was back in a living nightmare. The police officers suggested that she should sleep on it while they put all the stuff to the CPS, and while they started to look into the possibility of further 'victims', they didn't say how they were going to do that and she didn't ask, but there was no point in her making any sort of decision until the CPS had ruled one way or another, so she nodded, she just wanted to get out of there and find Charles and go home.

"Well, thank you Molly, you've been really helpful, but we'd better get you back to your minder now" Inspector Richards was impressed by her outwardly calm appearance, having no idea what was going on in her head as her army training kicked in, so he smiled at her, "Much longer and he'll start breaking down the doors looking for you"

"He's not me minder, it's just that he feels responsible cos he was there" Molly did her best to smile back at him.

"He was there?" Inspector Richards stopped dead and stared at her incredulously, his voice rising in disbelief "What, actually there? how come?"

"Oh no, no, no, he weren't there as such, I mean, I didn't know him at the time but he was there in Cyprus, he was Webster's CO and he was at the same bloody barbecue and he got suckered into speaking up for him. It was only when he met me a while back and found out what a crock of sh… I mean a load of rubbish he'd been told that he got bleeding mad about it all"

They went through the door into the reception area where Charles was waiting impatiently, he was pacing backwards and forwards and checking his watch constantly against the clock on the wall behind the desk. He stepped forward to wrap his arms around her as soon as she appeared in front of him, totally aghast at the expression on her face as he shot a look of anger towards the policeman and tried to think what the hell could have happened.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, hugging her as tightly as he could , knowing that she was far from alright, she had that look of tension on her face that he thought had gone forever.

"Never better" she tried to smile at him, while he glared at the policeman over her head, and raised his eyebrows as though he was asking a question. There were times when he badly missed the status he had enjoyed in the army, and this was one of them, the status that meant he would have been entitled to demand complete answers from the little man in front of him.

"Mr James" the Inspector put his hand out for Charles to shake, which Charles' ingrained good manners demanded that he comply with, whilst correcting the Inspector "Captain James" he emphasised the rank he was still entitled to, but rarely. If ever, used, knowing he was being faintly pathetic but he had taken an instant and irrational dislike to the policeman mainly because he blamed him for the way Molly looked. The Inspector looked at Charles steadily, not a bit intimidated by the younger man's obvious ill-will, "Miss Dawes, um, Molly I mean, will explain what's happening and what will happen next" he smiled at Molly "Now, don't keep worrying about it, just go and have a really good New Years Eve, not too good, of course, and we'll be in touch as soon as we've got any news for you" He patted her arm and left, leaving Charles to pick up the pieces.

She didn't say a word on the way to the car, apart from saying that she wanted to wait until she got home to talk and so they travelled home in almost compete silence. Charles was an absolute living question mark, he felt a real need to know, he was dying to find out exactly what had happened and wanted to ask for every tiny detail of everything that had been said, but he knew that interrogating her was probably the worst thing he could do right now, he had to let her tell him in her own time and in her own way, but that didn't mean he had to like it. She was very pale and had a set expression on her face as she chewed the inside of her bottom lip, which was quivering slightly, and looked out of her side window, avoiding his anxious glances. She was a million miles away from the girl who had been with him the last time he had travelled home down the M4, the happy intimacy of Christmas, just a few short days ago, had vanished and he was devastated that this was all of his making, he was listening to a tape running in his head that kept asking him how the hell he had managed to spoil things so comprehensively.

She went straight into the bedroom when they got back and sat on the bed staring into space, not crying, which he half expected, but just staring while he hovered in the doorway, unsure what to do next.

"Can you make a cuppa, please?

"Yeah, course I can"

They sat, side by side on the bed, leaning against the piled up pillows and sipping hot tea as Molly began to talk, but only after she had got him to promise that he wouldn't interrupt, that he would let her finish before he asked any questions. She sounded calm, almost rational and unemotional as she recounted what had happened, what they had told her and what was going to happen next and why, as Charles listened and was filled with more and more anger so that he felt an overwhelming desire to kick something or someone. All his years at Sandhurst and as an army officer where he had developed a rigid code of ethics and an iron self-control meant nothing as he longed to exact a very painful revenge, and had he been given the opportunity he would have done it without hesitation. When she ran out of words, he put his arms round her and pulled her close, he was incredibly relieved to note that she didn't put up any resistance, so obviously his worst nightmare of a complete return to the "no touching" routine hadn't happened. He breathed a sigh of relief;

"I'm so sorry, Mols, I should have kept my nose out of it, you don't have to do anything else, you've done enough, just let it go"

"I can't do that"

"What?"

"Your mum was right, Charlie, I can't let him win, I am gonna have to go through with it, I mean, I don't wanna, but he can't keep getting away with it, it's not on. The bit I'm most worried about is what happens when they find out about my job with Saul" she giggled "What the hell are they gonna make of that?"

Molly was invited to the grand opening of Saul's nightclub on New Year's Eve, although Charles wasn't included on the invitation he was going because Molly had rung Saul and threatened to boycott if Charles wasn't allowed as her 'plus one' and as she knew where a number of Saul's bodies were buried so he wanted to keep her on side, also, despite everything, he was fond of her and hoped to persuade her to do the occasional shift for him, she had been very popular with the punters. Molly was wearing the highest pair of killer heels she could walk in so that she could slow dance with Charles without feeling that she looked like a little girl dancing with her dad. They were making a determined effort to stop brooding about police and courts and 'what if's' and 'maybe's' for a few hours, they had agreed not to talk about any of it and to have a couple of drinks, relax and enjoy themselves, and Molly was getting very 'relaxed' and happy so Charles decided to stay completely sober in case he had to look after her. She reminded him so much of the way she was when he first went out with her, even down to calling him Muppet, as she put her arms round his neck and they slow danced on the spot, although he wasn't sure how much was dancing and how much was him keeping her upright, but he didn't care. She was smiling and laughing and that was all that mattered.

Her mate Michelle came wandering over, she was also visibly 'relaxed' and started saying that they should 'get a room' and that ' they made her sick and it wasn't fair' then added something about Quasimodo's ugly brother which was lost on Charles, but Molly found extremely funny as she told Michelle that they had a room, thanks very much, in fact they had several and that they had used them all. Charles didn't know whether to laugh or be embarrassed, and it wasn't even true, the kitchen, bathroom and spare room remained unsullied, so he laughed feeling the blush rise up his neck.

"Saul asked me to ask you to come back and do some shifts, the little tosspot misses you" Michelle did her best to look serious "Go on, Mols, I miss you, this place is crap without you"

"I never worked here, he hadn't found enough idiots to pay for it when I was here"

"Well, You know what I mean, oh, go on, please"

'"Na, can't do that, he's the possessive type" she patted Charles' cheek "And he won't let me, sorry and that, tell Saul for me, will you"

She dragged Charles away to sit down and then sat on his lap. "Since when did I get a say in what you do?" he was laughing as he stroked her hair back from her face, "When it suits me" Molly beamed at him and took another large gulp of her drink and he wondered whether it would be before or after midnight when she fell asleep. Actually it was well after midnight when they finally got home and she had shown remarkable stamina, much more than him and he was stone cold sober, which she definitely wasn't but she was still full of energy, or so she said when she started to seduce him, then fell asleep mid-stroke of his abdominal muscles, leaving him laughing and not a little frustrated.

**Authors notes: Sorry folks we are back to the angst in this one, but I needed to include it as reporting a sex crime to the police is never going to be a 'there, there, everything is going to be wonderful', wave a magic wand and it's all sorted out situation. Thanks for all your lovely reviews, I am so glad that so many of you are enjoying this, I am more grateful than I can say for all your positive comments on a sensitive subject. I have sometimes found this quite emotional to write and it's your feedback that is keeping me going.**


	12. Chapter 12

The phone call, when it came was not from Inspector Richards, but from someone she had never heard of and she couldn't quite catch his name even though he repeated it twice, and she didn't like to ask again, it seemed rude, so she pretended to know who she was speaking to. Sergeant 'whatever his name was' said that Inspector Richards was sorry he hadn't kept his promise and called her himself but he was tied up with something, so he had asked the Sergeant to ring her as he wanted her to know that the CPS had decided that there was sufficient evidence against Webster for there to be a realistic prospect of a conviction and that therefore they were proceeding against him. He was going to be re-arrested and would be formally charged with the serious sexual assault of three women, including her, in other words he was going to be accused of being a serial rapist. Molly immediately begged to know who the other two were, well one really, she knew about the Aldershot girl, although she didn't know her name, but not about anyone else, but Sergeant 'whatsit" said he couldn't tell her anything more, that she would have to speak to Inspector Richards, and that a letter would be on its way to her some time after Webster had been to the Magistrates court to be remanded for trial to the Crown Court.

Molly desperately wished there was someone with her so that she could 'high five' and celebrate the news, but Charlie was at work and had meetings all day, so calling him to tell him wasn't quite the same thing, she wanted to be with someone who wanted Webster to _hurt._ She would have called in to see Charlie, despite his meetings, but she didn't know how much his colleagues knew about her and what was going on, so she decided it might be better to wait for him to come home, even though she felt totally wired. She wanted to ring Richards or Sergeant Thingy to ask where they would arrest him and if she could go too and watch, because she had this wonderful picture in her head of loads of police cars with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, tearing onto the parade ground, flinging him to the floor and putting him in handcuffs in front of the entire platoon. She suspected that, actually, it wouldn't be anything like that, firstly because they wouldn't let her go with them and also because that picture probably owed more to cop dramas on tele than anything else. But she would still have loved to be there and to see his face when he realised just how much shit he was in.

Charles was equally sorry that he couldn't be there when Webster was arrested, but agreed that her fantasy was probably a little bit over the top, mores the pity, and when he phoned Simon Evans later that evening, Simon was the third person with regrets, although Simon was able to tell them that Webster had already been arrested and it had happened when he answered his police bail, so there probably hadn't been anything much at all in the way of excitement at all, much to Molly's disappointment, she felt it deserved some dramatics. When Charles mentioned that Webster was being charged with attacking a third person, Simon suddenly turned decidedly non-committal and seemed very reluctant to discuss it or speculate on her identity or how the police had traced her, so Charles let it go, convinced that Simon not only knew more than he was telling but that he had had a hand in tipping off the police, something that would get him in serious shit if the army found out.

Life went on and Molly attended her lectures, Charles worked and they both continued to live their normal lives, laughing, sometimes quarrelling, then making up and making love with the white hot physical passion they had for each other, and following their normal domestic routines while all the time there was a daily expectation that today would be the day that they heard something, that there would be this letter they had been warned about, that this seemingly endless wait for something to happen would come to an end. When the letter finally arrived it was the day after they had celebrated the first anniversary of the day they had met, their anti-freeze anniversary, which was a red letter day for Charles as it was the first time Molly had actually told him that she loved him, which, although he knew she did, she had never said out loud. The letter appeared almost as if it was a long awaited present. It explained that Molly would have to have a meeting with the prosecution in order for her to read over her signed statement and make any changes she wanted to, to discuss her evidence and for her to ask any questions and for them to ask for clarification of any of her evidence, so that Molly read it with a sense of foreboding.

"Bloody hell I thought I'd done the statement thingy, they didn't tell me that we was gonna have do it all over again"

She wasn't looking forward to going over all the details of the embarrassing bits again, and with yet another person, and she was willing to lay money on it being another bloke, which it was. He was actually quite a nice bloke, although Molly noted that he was a very posh bloke, even posher than Charlie, but it took ages for her to relax enough to notice whether he was nice or not, over an hour of him dissecting her statement, challenging bits and questioning bits with his eyebrows raised, so that she wanted to ask him whose bleeding side he was on. He asked at length about the army's reaction to the attack and made a lot of notes as she talked, so that Molly wasn't entirely sure what he thought was important and what wasn't relevant and she didn't feel that she could ask. When he asked her if there was anything she wanted to add she decided to come clean about her worries about her job with Saul, then wished she hadn't. He looked a little bit shocked and then hurriedly put on a straight face and started asking lots of questions and she realised after a few minutes that he thought she'd told him she had worked as a hostess and that she was some sort of sex worker, at which point she got the serious giggles and told him that she hadn't meant to say she was a brass cos she definitely wasn't and he warned her about the consequences of laughing like that in court, warning her not to be flippant and saying that a jury might think she was flaky and that she wasn't taking it seriously.

He told her that he wasn't allowed to coach her about what to say or how to say things, apparently that would be seen as unfair to the defendant, which Molly thought was a bit rich, and to remember when the defence started trying to attack her story, as they would, not to take it personally and not to be defensive or lose her temper, just to keep calm and stick with the truth. Molly could tell that he thought she might possibly get a bit feisty if someone called her a liar, so she smiled sweetly and agreed while hoping that she'd remember what he'd said in the heat of the moment, which she knew, was pretty unlikely. They talked for some minutes about the impression she was going to try and make on the jury, as he mentioned that, however chauvinistic and unfair it might seem, it was important to dress as demurely as possible. Molly wasn't entirely sure what he was getting at and longed to ask him if he thought she looked like a slapper, then remembered that she was trying not to be feisty or flippant and stored that one up to talk to Charlie about when she got home. The other two girls were called Alice and Tiffany and although Molly didn't get to meet them because they were not allowed to compare notes, she was told that they had already seen the prosecution and were definitely going ahead, as she was.

Charlie also wasn't sure what constituted 'demure' in terms of a dress code and told Molly that she never looked like a slapper, but she was convinced that there must have been something wrong with what she had been wearing otherwise he wouldn't have felt the need to mention it, so she decided to look for something that was a cross between Mary Poppins and the nun's outfit from the Sound of Music. She then got really frustrated because she couldn't find anything that anywhere near matched the picture in her head and gave up, opting for jeans and a plain, high necked and long sleeved white shirt, so that Charlie laughed and asked her if she had decided that if she couldn't do demure, was she going to go for clean and respectable instead of attractive, and then he demanded to know whether she was going to put her hair in a bun and borrow some granny specs from someone. She ended up giggling and telling him that she thought she did look attractive, if a bit straight, and that she'd already thought of the bun and specs, but that the specs made her dizzy and she couldn't walk straight when she was wearing them, so that she looked like a drunk which she really didn't think would go down well with the jury.

They stayed at the Percy Arms, a 5* hotel, the night before the trial. Guildford was far too far from Bristol to make it possible to drive backwards and forwards each day, and Charles wanted somewhere nice so that it would feel like a bit of a treat for them, and Molly was too strung out to stay with her family, in fact Charles wasn't sure that she had even told them what was going on. He'd asked her a couple of times but she hadn't really answered him just changed the subject, so he was pretty sure she hadn't. He was finding the whole thing far more difficult than he had expected to, Molly seemed determined to get through the next few days without showing too much emotion, and only betrayed her nerves with the way she snapped at him when he asked if she was okay and told him to knock it off, she'd tell him if she wasn't. Charles was very anxious and one of his biggest worries was what the hell would happen if, and God forbid, Webster was acquitted. He just hoped that the CPS and the police and everyone else involved knew what they were doing and had done their homework properly. He found that he no longer cared quite so much about what happened to Webster, just as long as Molly came out of it unscathed.

Guildford Crown Court on a wet, miserable Wednesday morning at the end of April was not the most inviting place they had ever seen and Molly was so nervous that she kept having to visit the Ladies to pee. They presented themselves at reception as instructed in the letter giving them dates and times and were told which court and where to find the usher who would look after her, which they did. He set out to show her to the right room to wait, and then explained she would wait there for it all to kick off, as she described it to Charles. Charles knew he couldn't go with her, but it was still a wrench as she walked off with the usher, looking over her shoulder at him with a half-smile and half grimace on her face and he went off to try and get a seat in the public gallery. Molly had giggled and told him that she wanted him there so that he could shout "Hang the bastard" when Webster was found guilty and had then pretended to be disappointed when he'd explained that, nice idea as it was, he wouldn't be allowed to and would probably go the jail himself for contempt of court if he tried.

**Author's notes: This is the penultimate chapter, so thank you for sticking with me and for all your lovely reviews. Please review this for me, if you can bear to.**

**I will upload the final chapter as soon as I have finished editing it, probably tomorrow, when I have made sure it makes sense, sometimes I get a bit carried away, and I have got rid of all the spelling mistakes and typing errors. I apologise for any errors there may be in the pre-trial procedures I have shown, I did hours of research, not having a criminal background or any first-hand knowledge of the justice system, you never know when being a bit dodgy will come in handy, but there is a ton of information out there, most of it is conflicting and confusing to a non-legal brain, so I went with the scenario which suited me best, so sorry, if there are mistakes, blame . **


	13. Chapter 13

The girl who she now knew as Tiffany was the first to be called which was a relief as they had been sitting in almost complete silence for nearly two hours, staring into space, occasionally nodding and smiling at each other, afraid to speak after being told that they must not, under any circumstances whatsoever, discuss anything at all with anyone that might be construed as relevant to the case. Molly wasn't sure what that would include, and she was dying to have a chat about something with someone, anyone would do, because the time was going so slowly and no-one had bothered to let them know what was going on or how much longer they would have to wait before something happened. She wished she had bought her I-Pad with her although she didn't know if they were allowed, mobile phones were not.

The time between Tiffany being called and something else happening was endless, and then suddenly Molly heard her name being called. Tiffany had not reappeared in their waiting room so Molly had no idea what sort of mood she was in after she'd finished her turn to say what had happened to her, whether she was happy or upset or whatever, and she would have liked to have known. She followed the usher, feeling very small next to him and knowing that she looked very young, she had foresworn the bun and gone for a simple pony tail, knowing it made her look like a schoolgirl and hoped that her hair, together with the plain white top, was demure enough. Her legs were shaking slightly as she walked across the court, not looking at anyone at all, as her mouth got drier and drier, so that she wasn't sure she would be able to speak when she had to, so she was relieved to see there was a glass of water on the witness stand, but not too happy about the way her hand shook as she sipped from it. The court clerk asked her to swear the oath and confirm her identity and she was dismayed at the way her voice shook, even she could hear it, as she began to scan the room to see if she could see Charlie. She saw him almost instantly and tried to smile back when he smiled and winked at her and she took a deep breath and then looked at the Jury, she had been told that if she avoided looking at them, which was what she wanted to do, she would come across as shifty as it would look as if she had something to hide. She still hadn't looked at Webster, she found she didn't want to. Then, the prosecution barrister smiled at her and she smiled back and he started to take her back through the events of that god-awful night in Cyprus and she began to relax, knowing that every word she spoke was the truth and that she had nothing to hide, even though she looked down when he got to the embarrassing bits and the judge had to ask her to speak up when she was answering the questions, then she stopped being nervous and looked straight at Webster, but he didn't look at her.

He wasn't a bit like the monster her memory and bad dreams had created for her, in fact he looked a bit pathetic, just ordinary, not that big, although blokes always look bigger in army uniforms, and definitely not as good looking as she remembered, not a patch on Charlie anyway, and she began to wonder why the hell she had spent almost the last four years being screwed up by the thought of him. At last the prosecution bloke thanked her and told her to stay where she was, then smiled and nodded at her as if to say "Well done" and she smiled back at him , feeling rather pleased with herself. She was sure she had made a good impression on the jury, she could see some of them smiling at her. The judge decided that it would be a good time to break for lunch and they would start again after and she was given lots of strong warnings about still being on oath and not to talk to anyone about anything. Molly was not very happy about taking a break at that point, she'd far rather have carried on and got it over with. She had no appetite for food at all, despite Charlie's best efforts to try and get her to eat something, her throat closed at the thought because she knew the next bit would be the hard bit, when the other side would try and paint her as a drunken trollop who got what she was asking for and then changed her mind when she'd got it.

They were back in the room waiting to go back into court, but nothing seemed to be happening except that for the past half an hour or so, some geezer wearing usher's robes kept bobbing into the room and having a whispered conversation with the usher who was 'minding' them, and then bobbing out again, so that the two girls kept looking at each other with raised eyebrows and shrugging their shoulders at each other, obviously something was going on, but they weren't being told what it was.

Then the Crown Prosecution bloke came in and calmly told them that Webster had, during the lunch break, seen his solicitor and changed his plea to guilty, just like that.

After the initial few minutes when everyone was talking at once, all trying to find out what had happened and what was going to happen next, Molly suddenly almost exploded with rage, she was absolutely livid. "What? WHAT?" she was outraged "Are you telling us that after all this jerking around, all this hanging about, all the" she struggled to find the word she wanted to use **"Bollocks** we've put up with, we are just supposed to say thanks very much and piss off out of it? Is that what you're saying?"

"What I'm saying, Miss Dawes, is that Mr. Webster has now pleaded guilty to the crimes he's accused of, assaulting you and the other two ladies, and he will be sentenced, probably in a few days, to an undoubtedly long prison term, obviously he'll be dishonourably discharged from the army, but basically that's it, it's over"

"Can he do that, just like that?" Molly interrupted his flow of words, for some reason he appeared to think it was good news, she did not.

" You can give the court your Victim Impact Statement before sentencing so that the Judge can take it into account when he decides on how long, but that is totally your choice, you don't have to"

"I'm not gonna get up and tell the Judge how that little turd" she heard Alice snigger at her choice of word "Fucked up my life for over three years when he can hear me and know what he did" She looked at the other girl then continued "I wanted to see his face when the jury said he was guilty and that he was in the deepest possible shit. He owed me that"

"You may not be happy about it Miss Dawes, um, Molly, but believe me it is the best possible outcome, Jury trials are notoriously unreliable and sometimes you get a verdict that just defies belief, for instance if some of jury decided that he's too young and sweet looking, or he reminded them too much of their grandson or something to be what we were saying he is, so who knows?"

"Why do you reckon he did it? you know, changed his mind"

"Well, probably when he had listened to the opening statements and the initial evidence, he decided that he was more than likely going to have a problem and that if he pleaded guilty he might get a shorter sentence, or maybe that he wasn't enjoying it any more. Rape is not really all about sex, a lot of it is about power, and he was fast losing any power he had but if he thought he was getting a shorter sentence this way, I think he left it a bit too late for that. Anyway, I'll be presenting the main evidence in the case to the Judge at the sentencing hearing and asking for the maximum possible sentence and then the defence will ask for the shortest possible and then the Judge will decide"

"Good" Molly was beginning to calm down "I hope he gets life"

"Well, actually life is the maximum penalty, but I shouldn't think we'll get it, we'll probably get more like ten years"

An hour later in the pub and Molly was still struggling to see what had happened as a victory, although everyone else, including Charlie, kept telling her to cheer up, that they'd won, that Webster had got what he asked for and was going to be locked up for a long time somewhere deeply unpleasant but she still couldn't rid herself of the feeling that she'd been cheated, she'd wanted to show everyone that she wasn't any kind of victim. Alice, the Aldershot girl, was the one to show her that she was actually being a bit selfish. Alice suddenly turned to Molly and said that is was okay for her, but that she, for one, was delighted that she didn't have to go into court and answer lots of questions, she had been drinking, she had kissed him and, because she was a bit pissed, she had considered sleeping with him, she just hadn't expected to be held down and raped, but she had been warned to expect a fairly rough ride from the defence.

"So, are we going to this sentencing hearing then?" Charles had his arm round her as they walked back to the hotel, in Molly's case a little unsteadily, she had been too nervous to eat any breakfast and had had no lunch unless you count the liquid she had just had and a packet of crisps, so she was finally in an extremely good mood over the day's events, especially as the solicitor had pointed out that she might have a good case for suing the MOD and that she should look into it. He had given her the name of a law firm that specialised in these sorts of cases.

"Dunno, do you reckon it's worth it? Someone will tell us what he gets and I'm not a victim so I'm definitely not doing that Victim thingy, so I wonder if going to that hearing is a waste of time. The CPS bloke reckons he'll get ten years"

"Is that all? Christ, he'll be out in five and no, you're not a victim, you're a winner"

"Yeah well, we're not allowed to hang him" She ignored the second part of his statement as she usually did when he paid her compliments, then giggled, sounding slightly pissed, so that Charles laughed at her , and asked, "What do you want to do now?"

"Oh, I'm sure we can think of something"

"No, apart from that" he squeezed her shoulder "It'd be nice to get away, shall we go on holiday? I thought we could find a nice little villa somewhere in Greece, Crete maybe, somewhere with a pool where it will be hot enough for you to wear a bikini all day and I can lust after you, what do you think?" As far as Charles was concerned they needed a break and he would love to get away from the endless discussions about the trial which would stop now anyway and the equally endless discussions and rows over whether they were going to live in Bath when his mum moved out. He couldn't understand Molly at all, he thought that most people would jump at the chance of living in a house like that, rent free, but not Molly, she didn't want to.

"That'll be nice, but why Greece?

"It's cheap" he laughed "We can probably get a really nice place for half of nothing at the moment and they'll be nice to us because they'll be so bloody grateful for the money"

"I remember when you said that only the best was good enough and that money was no object"

"I was still trying to impress you then"

"You were still trying to get into my knickers, you mean"

"Yeah, well there was that as well"

**Author's note: This is a short epilogue for those of you who, like me, love their sloppy, fluffy, happy endings. Anyone who doesn't, I suggest you give it a miss**

**Epilogue**

They were in the garden of the small whitewashed villa on a hillside in Crete, the garden was sheltered from the usual late afternoon wind which was whipping up white horses down in the bay and the sun was still hot enough to bring out the perfume of the shrubs which were dotted around the garden and the small pool, shrubs which they couldn't identify because as Molly said "You don't need to know about flowers in east Ham, only where you can buy a bunch" and roses and daffodils were the only flowers Charlie knew and they decided they definitely weren't them. It was very quiet, just the sound of the cicadas, and very still and private and Molly was on a mission.

"No, I've already told you, no way, not until you tell me where you've hidden them" Charles was sitting in a padded patio chair laughing at Molly who was standing between his legs, wearing white bikini pants, and nothing else except a rapidly developing golden tan. He was trying very hard to ignore the fact that she was standing very, very close to him.

"I haven't hidden them, perhaps we've run out" she draped her arms round his neck moving even closer to him "And we don't need them anyway"

"Yes, we do and we haven't run out, so where are they? Come on Mols, stop playing silly buggers, you're driving me nuts here"

"Good, and I'm not playing anything, I just don't understand why you're being so mean to me" Molly had changed tactics from wheedling to hard done by "I thought you loved me"

"You know I love you, that's why I'm being sensible, or trying to be. All I'm saying is wait till you've finished Uni."

"Bloody hell, I don't want to wait six more years, me body clock's ticking"

"You haven't even got a body clock, you're only 24 for God's sake, you've got all the time in the world"

"I might have, but in six year's time you'll be nearly 40, you might be past it, I mean It's almost Granddad age, innit?"

"Are you going to do that or just look at the box all day?" Charles was resting against the headboard with this arms folded behind his head watching Molly turn the box over and over in her hands as she tried to decide what to do on a warm, quiet Sunday morning in Bristol.

"I might leave it another few days"

"Why? You've already left it a week and anyway, we already know what it's going to say"

"Might not, it could be something else"

"Yeah of course it could be something else" Charles was smirking "Bit unlikely though isn't it, bearing in mind what we've been doing for the last couple of weeks. Go on, beautiful, stop pissing about and go and find out if you got knocked up by a granddad in Greece."

She came back after a couple of minutes holding the little white wand which she put on the bedside table and didn't say a word.

"Well?" Charles was too impatient to wait for her to speak.

"It's not instant, Muppet, you have to wait a couple of minutes"

"Give it here, I'll hold it while we wait"

"No, you won't, you'll just have to wait out"

She checked the time and then picked up the little wand, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened one eye a crack and squinted at the little viewing window. She turned to him with her face wreathed in an ecstatic smile as he laughed and said "I take it that I'm going to be a daddy again then, shall I?" then, as she nodded still wreathed in smiles, "So that means you are going to keep the other half of the bargain, does it?" She nodded again "So, tomorrow morning we go and find the quickest way we can get married, yes?"

"Yes, but it may take a while to find something to wear"

"It doesn't matter what you wear, you can wear your jeans, if you can still get them done up" he laughed at her expression "We can have a blessing later on if you like, and I'll dress up like a prat and you'll look beautiful in a wedding dress, athough you'd look beautiful in a bin liner"

"You wouldn't!"

**Author's notes: Thank you for sticking with the story, and thank you for all your kind words of support for a sensitive subject. I have, for the most part, really enjoyed writing this although, as you know, it has got a bit emotional at times as I really cared about her as if her problems were real. I hope that you enjoyed this last chapter, please let me know.**

**To those of you lovely people who were kind enough to say that you hoped I was going to start a new story, my latest is almost ready to be uploaded, and is going to be something completely different again. I hope you will enjoy it.**

"


End file.
